HESCO says 3 children died of electrocution in encroached house

HYDERABAD, Apr 23 (APP):The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) says 3 deaths of children due to electrocution from a 11,000 KV power transmission wire in a house in Hyderabad have not occurred due to any fault of the company.The HESCO’s spokesman Sadiq Kubar informed the APP here on Thursday that the house in Tando Tayab locality where the incident happened was built under a heavy transmission wire.He termed the construction as an illegal encroachment against which not only the residents were served notices by HESCO but the district administration was also requested to take action.He claimed that HESCO’s transmission wires were laid long before those houses were built unlawfully in Tando Tayab. According to him, Chief Executive Officer Faizullah Dahiri while expressing deep sadness over the unfortunate incident had also initiated an inquiry which was being conducted by the company’s Director Safety with instructions to submit a report in 24 hours.”Time and again we have tried to sensitize the people that even tying livestock animals or other things with electricity poles is illegal and dangerous,” he said, lamenting that people were seen building houses under or very close to the transmission network.On behalf of the company, Kubar appealed to the people who had constructed their homes unlawfully and dangerously close to the transmission networks to voluntarily demolish their encroachments.”We are also demanding that the local administration should play its part and demolish illegal constructions,” he said
Executive Engineer Phuleli Subdivision of HESCO, Muhammad Zuhaib Sherwani, said the incident happened early in the morning.According to him, a team which was swiftly dispatched to the site of the incident witnessed that one of the deceased boys was holding the 11,000 KV transmission wire in his hands while 2 other children died in efforts to save him.He claimed that the HESCO’s line was in tact and that any impression of a broken wire was baseless.”The main reason behind the tragic incident was encroachment. People have encroached homes under 11,000 KV wires and even our poles are now inside some of their homes,” he maintained.
He also deplored that the local authorities did not take action against such encroachment despite repeated requests by HESCO.”We once again urge the local authorities to end encroachment to avert such incidents in future,” he said.Three boys including 14 years old Abdur Rehman and 2 brothers 12 years old Feroze and 10 years old Kamran died in the incident.They belonged to Shahdadpur town of Sanghar district and were visiting Hyderabad with their parents to attend a wedding. The bodies were shifted to Liaquat University Hospital for medico legal formalities before being taken to their homes in Shahdadpur for the burial.