Boy’s death from electrocution: Traders pull down shutters, storm police post

MANSEHRA: The traders on Monday observed a complete shutdown and allegedly stormed a police post established at the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital after a boy, who was trying to avoid getting arrested during a crackdown launched by the district administration against the use of polythene bags, was electrocuted.

The incident occurred at the Zafar Chowk in the city when the boy identified as Mohammad Asif, according to protesters, who worked at a nanbai shop and attempted to flee after seeing the assistant commissioner and her guard coming toward him.

The angry traders shut down shops and business centres across the city and blocked the Mansehra-Abbottabad road, seeking registration of the first information report against the assistant commissioner and her guard who, they alleged, had ordered the chasing of the deceased.

The protesters led by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl leader Mufti Kifayatullah and former senator Hidayatullah Shah and president of traders body Haroonur Rasheed raised slogans against the administration and demanded the registration of an FIR against the official and her guard.

They blocked Karakoram Highway outside Ghazikot Township placing the body of the victim on the road. The charged traders stormed the police post established at King Abdullah Teaching Hospital after the body was shifted there for medico-legal formalities.

They smashed windowpanes and doors demanding registration of the FIR. One Ajab Khan told the police that the assistant commissioner was visiting the city along with her guard and when they reached his shop his nephew Mohammad Asif, who worked there, fled the scene.

“The assistant commissioner asked her guard to catch him (Asif) and he rushed towards the roof of his shop and fell on the ground after being electrocuted,” he said. Ajab Khan said his nephew succumbed to injuries before being taken to hospital.

The police didn’t lodge the FIR while the deputy commissioner and the

district police officer told the media separately that legal formalities would be initiated and on completion of the initial inquiry, it would be decided whether FIR should be lodged

or not.