According to the Sihala police, factory worker Naeem Shehzad was on a ladder cleaning the top of the tank. The water in the tank was contaminated with chemicals. “The tank is where water containing different chemicals washed off the boards is collected, so there were different gases in the tank,” said a police official.
Shehzad either slipped from the ladder, or lost consciousness after inhaling the gasses and fell into the tank after losing his grip on the ladder. No one saw him fall but his colleagues rushed to his help after seeing him in the water.
Ayaz Gul and Shahid Farooq tried to save him but they also fell into the water after inhaling the gasses and drowned. Waseem and two other colleagues made an attempt to save their co-workers and also got trapped in the process.
Other workers at the factory called Rescue 1122, who quickly arrived at the spot. The rescue workers managed to pull two men out alive, while the other four had drowned.
The dead and injured were shifted to Benazir Bhutto Hospital Rawalpindi and Polyclinic Hospital by Rescue 1122 and the Sihala police.
Hospital officials said the two rescued workers were not in any immediate danger; however, they were being kept under observation for 24 hours as they had inhaled harmful gases and swallowed contaminated water.
Police said that Malik Faisal, the owner of the factory, was yet to contact them. No relatives of the dead have approached the police to file a complaint. Police said the bodies of the dead were handed over to their relatives in the presence of the managing director of the factory.
Sihala police said a case could only be registered if someone files a complaint.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 31st, 2011.
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