After 1 victim, rabid dog enters college for second time, bites 5

KARACHI:

A stray dog which bit a student a day earlier, re-entered a public college for a second day in a row and bit five more people.

On Wednesday afternoon, just when the students at Rana Liaquat Ali Khan Government College of Home Economics rushed out of their classes at home time, the dog wandered inside the premises.

In the chaos the dog, apparently suffering from rabies, bit two students, a sweeper and a gardener.

The rest of the people luckily rushed back from the lobby towards the corridors where classrooms were located and locked themselves in.

The faculty members took the victims to Jamal Noor Hospital located nearby in Dhoraji Colony, said Principal Prof. Afzaal Fatima. The victims were given vaccine shots to ward off rabies and were released. “We immediately called the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and the police, but they said it was not their responsibility,” said the principal. Later on, when an application in writing was submitted to the KMC office along with a notice for the college’s closure on Thursday, a team of KMC’s huntsmen arrived.

The dog was initially given a poisonous capsule and while it was losing consciousness one of the KMC workers killed it.

The dog made its way to the college first on Tuesday afternoon but was shooed away by the staff after it bit a student. Little did they know, the dog would return another day.

The residential area for the college’s teaching and non-teaching staff is inside the premises which is why the gates are opened dozens of time during the day.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2012.