Mother of a 10-year old girl who was shot dead during a police encounter with robbers in Karachi’s Defence area has spoken of the government’s failure and negligence due to which her child lost her life.
On August 13, Amal Umer was on her way to a concert when was killed by police fire.
Amal’s mother, Beenish Umer in an article on a local media outlet’s web page said that they were waiting for the signal to turn green after being mugged when the tragedy occurred.
“We were thinking the worst was over as we waited for the traffic signal to turn green and the cars in front of us to make way, we heard gunshots,” she wrote.
“Amal was lying on the back seat. It was dark. I thought at first, she was fine but she wasn’t moving. She was bleeding. By then I realised my baby had been hit in the head,” she said.
She further says that the family, including her husband and younger daughter, rushed to National Hospital and Medical Center (NMC) where they were told to seek help from either the (government-run) Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) or to the private Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH).
“When taken to the NMC emergency, Amal was denied first aid. No blood was given, no measures taken to facilitate her transfer to the recommended hospitals. When medical staff (who have all taken an oath to save lives) were asked to accompany the child, they denied help. When we requested the hospital to let us borrow the ambu bag, that too was denied to a 10-year-old child. The Aman Foundation denied us an ambulance and it seemed like everyone just watched our precious Amal struggle to breathe and then they stood by, waiting for her to die,” she added.
She also said that the staff at NMC refused the child any assistance of trained staff as they waited for another hospital’s ambulance.
Furthermore, a representative of the Aman Foundation that was supposed to arrive for the injured girl did not respond to any questions regarding the time at which an ambulance would arrive.
In the article, Beenish also said the media pounced on her husband Umer for a response even before they could take their daughter to the morgue.
“Over the next two days, August 14 and August 15, among other visitors we were also visited by a bunch of police officials, including Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Omer Shahid Hamid of District South. On meeting Umer, the SSP said the bullet seemed to be that of the bandit. That was the police’s stance for the first two days,” wrote the aggrieved mother.
“The security and health departments did everything in their power to make sure our child would not make it back home. The police department and the hospital both killed our daughter. We ask parents and concerned citizens to stand together and demand reforms. We demand accountability and we demand empathy and humanity from these desensitised departments. We demand justice and betterment of the systems and this society,” concluded the mother.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) South Javed Alam Odho while speaking at a press conference confirmed that it was a bullet fired by a policeman using an AK-47 that led to the unintentional death of 10-year-old Amal and assured that an appropriate action has been taken against the policemen involved in the encounter.
The DIG regretted the loss of an innocent life but added that the police had to shoot to kill the robber, otherwise, the suspect might have gunned down the policeman in question.