Celebratory gunfire claims life of 10-year-old girl

In yet another appalling incident, a 10-year-old girl lost her life due to aerial firing at a wedding ceremony in Karachi’s Orangi Town neighbourhood in the late hours of Saturday.

The tragic incident took place near the Maryam Wedding Hall located in Orangi Town within the jurisdiction of the Pirabad police station late on Saturday night. The victim was identified as Madiha, daughter of Fazal Malik. The girl was second oldest among her three siblings and a student of grade three.

She was standing on the balcony of her house to watch a wedding ceremony at the house of her neighbours when suddenly a bullet hit and killed her. “We did not nominate anyone in the FIR as Allah knows better who is actually responsible for the incident,” the victim’s father told The News. “Multiple wedding ceremonies were being held in the area, including the one in our neighbour’s house, and a wedding hall is also close to our house where some 25 to 30 people were continuously firing with Kalashnikovs and pistols.”

The police have taken a neighbour of the victim, Shakir, into custody. It has been reported that his brother Shafiq’s wedding was being held. An elder brother of the groom, namely Habibullah, is a local leader of a political party.

As the girl was hit by a bullet, the family took her to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors pronounced her dead. However, the family had to wait till the morning for around 12 hours due to unavailability of a female medico-legal officer at the hospital. “We had to wait for around 12 hours for her post-mortem due to the absence of a lady MLO,” the father explained.

“My daughter was hit in the back of her head and the bullet exited the body from near her eye,” the bereaved man said. The victim’s funeral prayers were offered on Sunday which were attended by a large number of people. She was later laid to rest at a graveyard in Orangi Town.

An FIR No 18/22 under the sections 337 and 322 was registered against unidentified persons on the complaint of the victim’s father at the Pirabad police station.

Meanwhile, police officials investigating the case suspect that the bullet that killed the girl was fired from close range. District West SSP Suhai Aziz said nothing could be conclusively said right now as the investigations were at the preliminary level.

In a separate incident on Saturday night, a teenage boy, identified as 16-year-old Sajawal, son of Akbar, was wounded after a stray bullet hit him in Patel Society in Gulshan-e-Maymar locality.

He was shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medical treatment. Further investigations are under way. Madiha is not the first victim of aerial firing at weddings in recent months, as earlier on November 4, a wedding ceremony in Karachi turned into a sad incident after a six-year-old girl was killed in aerial firing by a policeman during a wedding ceremony in the Qayyumabad area.

Sadia, daughter of Hanif Ahmed, a resident of D Area, was hit by a bullet in her head inside her house and was rushed to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in a critical state where she breathed her last.

According to police, she died due to celebratory gunfire at the marriage. Upon receiving the information, police rushed to the scene and arrested six persons, including two brothers of the policeman, for allegedly resorting to firing.

The policeman whose firing caused the death of Sadia initially fled the scene but was later arrested. He was identified as Moin, a cop stationed at the Soldier Bazaar police station. Police registered a case against the cop, his two brothers and others over aerial firing on the complaint of the victim’s father.