KARACHI: An eight-year-old boy, who sold toys for a living, was killed after a security guard at a multinational fast-food restaurant fired his weapon in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, police said on Monday.
Muhammad Umar, son of an auto-rickshaw driver, was selling toys near Bilawal House Chowrangi in Karachi’s Clifton area, when he was fatally shot Sunday night. The child succumbed to his injuries on way to hospital.
“An 8-year-old boy Muhammad Umar was shot by security guard Muhammad Jan deployed at Subway restaurant, accidently or intentionally, in circumstances that are being investigated,” Asad Raza, a senior superintendent of police (SSP), told Arab News.
The security guard deposited his weapon to the restaurant’s management after the shooting and rushed the wounded child to Ziauddin Hospital on a motorbike, according to the official.
The boy died before reaching the hospital and the guard abandoned his body near a railway track and escaped, switching his cellphone off.
“A case has been registered against the guard, who hails from Jamrud area of the northwestern Khyber tribal district and used to live inside the restaurant,” SSP Raza said.
“His contacts are being raided.”
The victim’s father, Khadim Hussain, was dropping passengers in Defense area in his rickshaw when his elder son informed him about the incident over phone, according to the first information report (FIR).
Murtaza Wahab, the Karachi Administrator and a spokesperson for the Sindh provincial government, expressed his sympathies with the relatives of the victim and directed the police to immediately arrest the suspect.
Last week, a 14-year-old domestic help was brutally killed by his owners in Karachi’s Bahardurabad area.
In poverty-stricken Pakistan, about 3.3 million children are trapped in child labor and deprived of their childhood, health and education, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
