Celebratory firing at midnight leaves 95 injured

As many as 95 people including women, children and elderly people, sustained bullet injuries when the youth with the stroke of midnight opened indiscriminate fire in the air on the Pakistan's 77th Independence Day. Those who did not have firearms, set off firecrackers to join the celebration and express their joy. Later in the day, the police arrested 35 persons.

Like every year, all planning of police failed to refrain people from aerial firing. IG Sindh and Additional IG Karachi held several meetings with the three zonal DIGs and SSPs of all seven districts and discussed measures 'how to stop the firing in the city on August 14'.

At 12 o'clock midnight, most areas of the City of Quaid echoed with firing and explosions of firecrackers.

More than 95 civilians were injured when stray bullets hit them. Twenty-one injured persons were shifted to Civil Hospital, 20 to Jinnah and 19 to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Some injured were taken to private hospitals on Stadium Road, Gulshan-e-Iqbal and other areas where they received medical treatment and then they left without police action.

The police arrested accused from Kharadar, Chakiwara, Eidgah, Napier, Kalri, Baghdadi and Kalakot areas and recovered one rifle, 13 pistols and live rounds from their possession.