Two killed as gun goes off accidentally

Man died on spot, grandson succumbed on way to the hospital

ARIFWALA:

An elderly man and his grandson were shot dead in an incident of unintentional firearm discharge at their house on Friday.

Qutubuddin was cleaning his pistol in Chak Shafi village near Arifwala when a bullet was fired accidentally. The fire touched the neck of Qutubuddin and also hit his 12-year-old grandson Bilawal who was standing behind him.

As a result of the incident, Qutubuddin sustained severe bullet injuries and was killed on the spot while Bilawal died on the way to the hospital.

According to the heirs of the victims, the incident took place by accident. Police said that in view of the circumstances, the incident seemed suspicious. Ring Shah SHO Rai Khizar Hayat and Circle DSP Fayyaz Ahmed Pansota visited the site where the accident happened and inspected it from every angle.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, the officers present on the spot said that the incident was being investigated into from all angles and this incident will be reported with thorough observation.

Ring Shah police station took both the bodies into custody and shifted them to a hospital for postmortem. However, various sources in the village claimed that the incident was suspicious.

While there had been dozens of such incidents in different police stations of Arifwala tehsil in the last one year, the police and local security agencies usually declared such incidents as accidents and restricted them to paperwork.

The authorities concerned were reportedly reluctant to prevent such incidents from happening in the future while this incident had spread fear and panic among the residents of the area.

There was mourning in the house where the accident took place.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2020.