Another victim from the fireworks factory explosion in Hyderabad earlier this week succumbed to his wounds at Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) on Monday, taking the toll to 10, officials said.
At least six people were killed and seven were injured after a powerful explosion ripped through a fireworks factory in Hyderabad on Saturday. Police registered a case against multiple suspects, including the owner of an allegedly illegal firecracker factory. Nine people were reported to have died till yesterday.
LUH’s Additional Medical Superintendent (MS) Dr Mujeeb Kalwar told Dawn, “[The victim] was admitted with around 100 per cent burn wounds.”
“In view of his critical condition, MS Kalwar added, the victim was taken to the surgical ward’s intensive care unit, where he breathed his last today.”
According to a statement from the Rescue 1122 spokesperson on Saturday, the explosion was reported in a firecracker factory on the banks of the Laghari Goth river, Latifabad Police Station B Section limits.
Latifabad Assistant Commissioner Saud Lund said the fireworks were being illegally manufactured in a house without a licence.
Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar also took strict notice of the incident and summoned a detailed report.
“The legal status of the factory should be immediately investigated. Whether the legal license and safety principles required for making fireworks were being followed or not. Playing with lives cannot be allowed, and such incidents are unacceptable in the eyes of law enforcement agencies,” he was quoted as saying in a statement on Monday.
The first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with Dawn, was registered on the complaint of B-Section Station House Officer Niaz Panhwar.
It invoked Sections 322 (punishment for intentional murder), 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter), 286 (negligent conduct with respect explosive substance), 336 (punishment for mutilation or dismemberment of a limb), 336-B (punishment for hurt by corrosive substance), 337-H (punishment for hurt by a rash or negligent act) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code, read with the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
Factory owner Asad Yousafzai and his alleged accomplices, Rashid Khan, Dilshad Khan, Arshad and Shakeel Punjabi, were nominated as suspects in the FIR.
