Extremely 'hazardous chemical-laden' ship anchors at Gadani

GADANI: Despite the warning of Interpol, a ship reportedly laden with extremely hazardous chemicals arrived at the Gadani ship-breaking yard for scrapping, ARY News reported.

Sources privy to the matter said that Interpol had informed the Pakistani officials about the ship on April 22. As India and Bangladesh had not allowed the ship to enter their territories, the vessel changed its name and managed to arrive in Gadani, the sources added. The ship anchored at Gidani shipyard on 30th of April.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Balochistan has stopped work at the ship. According to sources within EPA, the authority had not issued NOC to the ship, adding that they had collected samples of the substance present in the ship and sent it for chemical analysis.

Last year in February, Sindh health department had announced 14 deaths in Karachi’s toxic gas leak incident in the port area.

Dr Zafar Mehdi, focal person of the provincial health department, in a statement, had said that 14 persons had been died at the city’s hospitals due to inhaling poisonous gas during the past two days.

Commissioner Karachi had told media that a cargo vessel had transported some consignment to Karachi Port Trust (KPT) from where the gas leakage spotted after inspection. The KPT administration had been ordered to halt off-loading of containers from the ship, he had added.