Dogs kill another child in Sitapur, sixth death reported in five days

LUCKNOW: The canine scare continued to haunt Sitapur district as a pack of feral dogs attacked and killed a 9-year-old boy in Talgaon area on Saturday, police said.

Station house officer (SHO) of Talgaon Indrajeet Singh said a pack of six dogs attacked two boys and two elderly women who were grazing goats in Bhagautipur village at around 12.15 pm.

One of the boys, Kasim, succumbed to injuries.

With Saturday’s incident, dogs have killed six children in last five days in the region. Though locals claim 17 children have been killed since November 2017, the police pegs the toll at 12.

UP minister in-charge of Sitapur Rita Bahuguna Joshi and animal husbandry minister SP Baghel visited the region on Saturday and directed district magistrate Sheetal Verma and superintendent of police Anand Kulkarni to take action.

Station house officer (SHO) Singh said Bhagautipur was nearly 20 kilometres from Mahsinghpur, Budhanpur, Chaubeypur and Peerpur villages where four children— aged between 7 and 11 years — were attacked by dogs.

Geeta, 7, of Mahsinghpur and Virendra Lodh, 11, of Budhanpur died in Friday’s attacks.

Earlier on Tuesday, a pack of feral dogs had killed three children, aged 11 and 12, in separate incidents in Tikaria, Gurpulia and Kholia villages of Sitapur’s Khairabad tehsil.

Singh said it was the first such incident reported from Bhagautipur village. “An elderly woman Raeesa told the police that the dogs initially attacked the goats that they were grazing.

They turned towards Kasim when he tried to save the goats. Raeesa alerted other villagers when the dogs did not flee but the boy could not be saved,” he added.