‘Labourers died due to absence of equipment at fish processing unit’

An investigation into the deaths of three labourers who died of suffocation on Saturday in an underground tank at a fish processing unit has revealed that the victims, in a bid to meet a set deadline, were trying to manually clean rotten fish from the tank as all pressure pumps were out of order, The News learnt on Monday.

The incident occurred on September 24 at Fish Meal Inter Market, a fish processing unit located in Korangi Sector 50-C. Zaman Town police station’s Sub Inspector, Siraj Ahmed, who completed the incident’s legal formalities, informed The News that 24-year-old Abdul Raheem, was the first to fall into the tank. “To save him, his colleague Bahadur Khan, 24, jumped into the tank but he also fell unconscious, it was after him falling unconscious that Khan’s 18-year-old brother, Bahadurullah, jumped inside the tank.”

Their bodies were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre after being retrieved from the tank by rescue officials; all three were declared dead on arrival to the medical facility. SI Siraj said since the factory’s owner is living abroad, details of the incident were provided to the police by the in-charge of the warehouse, identified as Sherzaman. While there were initial reports of two more labourers being pulled out of the tank alive and admitted at the JPMC, both the police and hospital authorities refuted the claim.