Peshawar rats bite another child

A two-year girl Aqsa suffered rat bite in Hassan Garhi area of the city. The girl was taken to a hospital and she passed a night in the hospital, said the father of Aqsa.

A child, Uzair, was died in February in Peshawar’s same area after being bitten by a rat.

Large size mice have become headache for the citizens and posing serious health threat.

The local authorities have recently announced head money of Rs. 25 for each dead mouse.

The citizens, however, complained that they have taken part in the rat killing campaign after announcement of the cash prize by the authorities. They said they have killed scores of rodents. But the local administration has failed to setup the backup structure to collect the dead mice and pay reward to the rat killers.

The population in the northwestern city of Pakistan faces a growing army of rodents causing threat to human health by contaminating food and biting people.

According to reports in last three years five persons have lost their lives by the infections caused by the rat bite.

Man hired to kill rats

A government agency in Peshawar had last year hired a man who claimed to have killed 100,000 rats in a bid to rid Peshawar of the rodents that plague its streets.

Nasser Ahmad, who was assigned the “Rat Killer” job, receiving a monthly salary of 15,000 rupees ($147), as well as a 2,000-rupee bonus per mission.

Ahmad says he has already killed more than 100,000 rats in the past 19 months, inspired to take action after seeing the wife of a friend hospitalised after being bitten by one of the rodents.

The Water Supply and Sanitation Agency of Peshawar had offered the job to Ahmed after receiving complaints about the growing number of rodents in the city.

Ahmad was also ordered to train others in a bid to tackle Peshawar’s rat problem.