Tanker crushes child; Tessori announces plots for victims’ families

KARACHI: A four-year-old boy was killed after being run over by a water tanker in Karachi’s Baldia Town, as the city continues to witness a worrying rise in fatal accidents involving heavy vehicles.

According to police, the child was playing on the roadside when the incident occurred. SSP Keamari Captain Faizan said the boy was crossing the street when he was hit.

SHO Baldia Imran Saad told media that the tragic incident took place in Abidabad, Baldia, where the boy was playing on the road when a water tanker ran him over.

The driver fled the scene, but the vehicle was seized by police.

Angry residents gathered at the site and tried to set the tanker ablaze, but police intervened and prevented further escalation.

This marks yet another fatality in a series of deadly traffic incidents in Karachi. On Wednesday night, a motorcyclist was injured after being hit by a dumper truck near Powerhouse Chowrangi in North Karachi.

The driver fled and rammed into two more motorcycles. Although no further casualties were reported, enraged citizens torched five dumpers, four water tankers and a truck in retaliation.

Karachi hospitals reported that nearly 500 people lost their lives and over 4,800 were injured in road accidents in 2024, many of which involved heavy vehicles. Public protests led the Sindh government to impose a daytime ban on heavy traffic and enforce mandatory vehicle fitness certificates.

In response to the rising death toll, Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori announced that plots of land would be allocated to the families of those killed in dumper accidents. He also pledged free education for the victims’ children up to age 12.

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The governor revealed that Chief Justice of Pakistan took notice of the matter after receiving a letter from him. “People are playing politics over corpses. I warn them to stop exploiting tragedies,” Tessori said, adding, “We won’t let Karachi and Sindh fall prey to conspiracies.”

Meanwhile, MQM-H leader Afaq Ahmed has announced a protest on April 12 against what he called the “mafia” behind such accidents involving tankers and dumpers. Branding the demonstration as the “White Flag Movement”, he said it would be a peaceful, apolitical protest.

However, he warned that if authorities attempted to suppress demonstrators, “the people will resist with the poles of their flags.”