Court orders police to file cases of Keamari 'toxic gas' deaths

KARACHI: A local court on Monday ordered the police to register five separate cases in Keamari toxic gas incident that claimed 14 lives in the area, ARY News reported.

The city court while hearing the case ordered the SHO Jackson police station to register five separate cases on as many petitions filed by five residents of the locality.

The police should register the cases if the incident happened in their jurisdiction, the court ordered.

Five residents of the Karachi locality adjacent to the port had filed petitions seeking registration of FIRs about deaths of their relatives in purported gas leak incident in mid February.

At least 14 deaths were reported and more than 300 patients had complained breathing problem in the Keamari port area of Karachi and hospitalized amid offloading of a consignment of soybean cargo from a ship.

The mystery surrounding the deaths of 14 people was earlier dubbed the leakage of toxic gas in the port area.