A 12-year-old boy succumbed to injuries on Friday morning even as the condition of 11 other children and three adults injured in an accidental blast in an illegal cracker-making unit in the city on Thursday evening continues to be serious.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Goshamahal Division) K Sridhar Rao told rediff.com that the critically injured boy, Arvind, succumbed on Friday morning. He said that the case is being investigated and the police have launched a manhunt to nab a butcher Narsing, who was illegally running the fire-cracker unit in his house. Two children are in a critical condition.
Eleven children, all in the age-group of 11 to 13 years, and three adults were injured when crackers went off accidentally at an illegal unit located in Joshiwadi area just 50 metres away from Shah Inayat Gunj police station in the Old City. The blast occurred around 5.30 pm, when the workers were making crackers called 'supari' (flower pot 'bombs'), due to a wrong mix of chemicals.
On hearing the blast, the police reached to the spot and rushed the injured in ambulances to the nearby Osmania General Hospital. Most of the victims suffered third degree (50 to 90 percent) burns. They were later shifted to Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences at Secunderabad for better treatment.
District Fire Officer G V Narayana Rao said the blast could have been caused by the pressure created on the crude explosive while it was being stuffed into the crackers.
Police said that the 32-year-old Narsing, a butcher by profession, was running the illegal cracker making unit employing local children, all school-going, as workers. The cracker unit, located in a 12 x 12 feet room, is located in the ground floor of a two-storied building. After school hours, the children of poor and lower middle-class families of the locality worked part-time in the unit under the supervision of three adults. The children were paid Rs 10 for making 100 crackers.
Though the illegal unit was located close to Shah Inayat Gunj police station, the police had no inkling of the activity in the house ahead of the Diwali festival. Incidentally, the fire services department had claimed to have launched a drive against firecracker godowns in residential areas in the city but this unit went unnoticed.
The intensity of the blast was such that the two-storied pucca house suffered heavy damage. Doors and windows of the one-room tenement were ripped apart. Neighbours panicked on hearing the huge explosion followed by the cries of the injured for help. They broke open the main door of the ill-fated premises to see the children with burns lying on the floor.
Narsing and his family members escaped unhurt as they were attending a function at a relative's house. On learning about the incident, Narsing and his family members did the vanishing act.
The police booked a case against Narsing under the Explosive Substances Act and Child Labour Act and took up investigations.
The injured include Parashuram (12), Srihari (12), Gopal (12), Sai (12), Venkatesh (13), Praveen (12), Ganesh (12), Balu (13), Varalakshmi (13), Shivani (12), Manjula (25), Jayashri (30) and Urmila (30).
Incidentally, three of them belong to one family. Police said that Jayashri and Urmila were sisters of Narsing and supervised the illegal cracker unit.
