Four women die in trailer-rickshaw collision

Four women were killed while a couple sustained injuries in a collision between a trailer and a rickshaw in Madeji, a rural town in Shikarpur district, on Sukkur-Larkana road on Tuesday.

The deceased women, identified as Najma Shaikh, Zainad Shaikh, Fareeda Shaikh and Hajra Shaikh, were relatives. They were travelling to Sukkur to draw an installment of the cash grant being released by the provincial government for reconstruction of the rain and flood-damaged houses. Waseem Shaikh and his wife Shakeela were injured in the accident.

They all belonged to Masudero village in Larkana. The local people complained that the ambulance was not available immediately and the dead and the injured were shifted to the local hospital in a mini-truck.

Police said the accident is believed to have happened due to thick fog in the area. The injured couple was shifted in a critical condition to Chandka Hospital in Larkana.

Read: Multi-vehicle collision kills six, injures eight

The members of the bereaved families staged a sit-in protest in Ratodero, blaming a non-governmental organisation for the deaths, saying that although their office existed in Ratodero, Larkana, the beneficiaries were made to travel all the way to Sukkur to draw the cash grants.

The protestors demand that the FIR of the accident should be lodged against the trailer's driver as well as the officials of the NGO.

Meanwhile, Shikarpur Deputy Commissioner Altaf Hussain Chachar took notice of delay in shifting the dead and injured in ambulances to the hospital.

The Shikarpur District Health Officer, Dr Pervez Ahmed Soomro, told the media that after the retirement of the ambulance's driver, new recruitment has not been carried out. He added that he will also conduct an inquiry about non-availability of staff and medicines in taluka hospital in Madeji.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2024.