KARACHI, Feb 21: As doctors at the Civil Hospital’s Burns Centre reached the final conclusion that eight-year-old Abbas received burn wounds due to exposure to toxic waste while playing cricket with friends, the area police on Saturday seemed reluctant to register an FIR against the offence, which is seen as an obvious violation of the Pakistan Environment Protection Act, 1997, by experts.

The investigators’ approach appeared to be lethargic as they failed to locate the exact place of the incident, where the toxic waste was dumped, allegedly in the residential locality of Abidabad, neighbouring the Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate (SITE). Even after more than 48 hours, the police seemed clueless about the factual details of the incident.

Furthermore, after recording the statements of the victim and receiving a written application from his guardians, who had decided not to purse legal action against the culprits, the police authorities did not seem to be in the mood to take the initiative under the defined law to trace the people behind such criminal negligence, despite accepting the medico-legal report of the boy.

“The family itself doesn’t want to pursue the case and we have their written request in this regard,” said ASI Mohammad Masood, investigation officer of the case, which has not yet been registered. “I personally visited the Burns Centre, received the ML report and recorded the statements of the boy and his paternal uncle.”

He said as the boy suggested, the area police attempted to locate the place, where the alleged toxic waste was dumped, but they failed to find any such dump.

“There is confusion about the facts as related by the boy and his family. They don’t want to share any information regarding the incident on unexplained grounds and the police cannot force them to do so. So, the bottom line is that the investigations are almost at a standstill and we would only reopen (the case) once the boy is released from hospital and try to locate the exact location of the incident, where the toxic waste was allegedly being dumped,” the officer added.

At the Burns Centre, doctors are sure that Abbas is a fresh victim of “industrial waste” dumped in a public area and they are preparing for a minor surgery of the boy, due on Monday, to determine the actual damage to his feet.

“The doctors would open the dressing over the feet and remove dead tissue on the skin hopefully on Monday,” said Dabir-ur-Rahman, executive director of the Burns Centre. “It would (reveal) the actual depth of the wounds and the nature of the chemical which has hurt the boy.”

Though the wounds did not pose a threat to any part of the boy’s body, he added that the doctors had determined after initial findings that the injuries were caused purely by the industrial waste.

Repeat?

An almost similar incident occurred in March 2006, when over 20 children sustained injuries when they strayed into a toxic waste dump while playing on a plot – F-620 and F-621 – of SITE Town. One of them, Iftikhar, aged eight, was so badly burned and injured that he died in April 2006, while his 10-year-old friend Shiraz was disabled for life when doctors were forced to amputate both his legs as a result of exposure to deadly chemicals.

A senior police officer Dawn spoke to further explained the reasons why the police was not registering an FIR. “The area, which is being described as the place where the waste was found, is purely an industrial area and this is a part of industrial activities,” said Mohammad Ali Wassan, SP Site Town. “Secondly, we have not received any complaint from the aggrieved party and we can’t move on our own on such doubtful facts. So we have registered a complaint report, but not an FIR.”

Mr Wassan’s comments came as a rude shock for legal experts, who see the recent incident as a violation of environmental laws as well as orders of the Sindh High Court passed in 2007, which demand registration of a proper FIR on behalf of the state, if the police do not receive any complaint.

“The high court in January 2007 passed an order in almost the same case of children’s burning due to toxic waste dumping and asked the Sindh Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) to ensure that industries do not dump their waste in any open place, even if it falls in an industrial area,” said Faisal Siddiqi, a lawyer.

Mr Siddiqi challenged the authorities concerned before the high court in the March 2006 toxic waste dumping case and managed to win damages for the aggrieved parties from the industrialist responsible. He said the fresh incident was a grim reminder of the same incident and he had already served legal notices to the institutions concerned in this regard.“The legal notices have been issued to Sepa and SITE. We have decided to take up the issue and would definitely move the high court to purse legal action against the individuals or institutions responsible,” he added.