KARACHI: An Afghan child was murdered in what police described as a dispute over garbage collection between two groups in Surjani Town on Friday.

       The Surjani Town police said five-year-old Shehzad Gul was bludgeoned to death in Sector-4B.

       They said the dispute erupted between two Afghans over the collection of garbage, which led to the murder. The suspect(s) had been identified and police were waiting for the family to lodge an FIR to formally initiate legal proceedings, the police added.

       Victim’s father Gul Mohammed told reporters that he had been collecting garbage from houses for the last one month. On Friday, his son and a daughter accompanied him to collect the garbage, he said.

       During the work, he left his both children for a while and went to another street and when he returned, he learnt that his son had been injured by hitting with a hard and blunt instrument.

       He rushed the son to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) where the doctors confirmed his death.

       The grief-stricken father said that he had been receiving ‘threats’ from a man who had got the contract of garbage collection prior to him. He suspected that his son was killed over that dispute.

       “I am a poor labourer who earns Rs13,000 on a monthly basis through garbage collection,” said the father. Gul, a resident of Rozi Goth in Surjani, was the only brother of two sisters.

       Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2024