Billboard collapse leaves three injured

Part of the roof caved in when the hoarding fell

KARACHI: A full-size billboard fell on a house alongside Kalapul on Wednesday, slightly injuring three people, including a child. The billboard, which did not bear the name of its maintaining advertising agency, partially collapsed the roof of the house which belongs to labourer Abdul Hameed.

Hameed told The Express Tribune that it was the third time that such an incident has happened with his family due to the same billboard.

"I have complained about its dangerous condition to the people who come here to install advertisements onto the board a number of times," he said. His nephew Gulzar said that around 3am, when he was lying on a charpoy, some parts of the roof fell on him. He moved to safety and later came to know that his two-and-a-half-year-old cousin Suhail fainted due to shock.

"[The child] is our whole kainat [universe]," he added, asking who would have been held responsible if something had happened to Suhail.

Saddar police station SHO Pir Shabbir said that the police have yet to locate the billboard owner and take legal action against him. He added that the area fell within the jurisdiction of Karachi Cantonment and this was not the first such case.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2016.