At least one person was killed and more than three dozen others injured in separate incidents of celebratory shooting and firing of crackers in different areas of the metropolis on the eve of Independence Day. Rescue sources said that a youth was critically injured after getting hit by a firecracker near Five Star Chowrangi in Nazimabad. He was taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where the doctors pronounced him dead. Two women, Taj Bibi and Tehmina, were injured by aerial firing on Jahangir Road and in Akhtar Colony. In a similar incident in Sohrab Goth, a minor identified as Aqib was critically injured after getting hit by a stray bullet. Aerial firing in FB Area Block 9 left a man, Hussain, injured, while another similar incident in Nazimabad wounded three. One the other hand, celebratory firing near Slaughter House in Lyari injured Muhammad Nawaz, while aerial firing in Paposh and Sher Shah injured two men, named Ahmed and Ashraf. The injured were shifted to different hospitals of respective areas where some were sent home after medical treatment and others with critical wounds remained under treatment. Aerial firing is a common, yet dangerous, way to celebrate an occasion or event. This expression of celebration often proves fatal when stray bullets hit people. Published in Daily Times, August 15th 2018.