Three people, including a seven-year-old girl, were killed in celebratory aerial firing during Pakistan’s Independence Day celebrations on Thursday, police said.
The girl was struck by a stray bullet in the Azizabad neighbourhood of central Karachi, while a 35-year-old man was killed in Korangi in the city’s eastern part, according to the daily Dawn. A 70-year-old man was also hit and killed outside his home in Kalri, local police officer Syed Asad Raza said.
“A seven-year-old girl was watching Independence Day fireworks from the second-floor gallery of her house in Azizabad Block 8 when a bullet struck her in the head,” local police officer Waqar Kaiser was quoted as saying. “A while later, her mother saw her bleeding out and her uncle took her to a nearby private hospital where doctors pronounced her dead. The body was shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where the bullet from her head was retrieved.”
Rescue workers told Geo TV that celebratory gunfire across Karachi also left over 100 people injured. Police reported cases of aerial firing in multiple neighbourhoods, including Liaquatabad, Lyari, Mehmoodabad, and Orangi Town, and said they had detained nearly 33 suspects and seized modern firearms and ammunition.
Authorities condemned the incidents and urged the public to celebrate Independence Day through safer, non-violent means. Independence Day celebrations in Karachi are marred by fatalities and injuries from aerial firing almost every year; in 2024, at least 95 people were wounded compared with 80 the previous year.
