The fresh grave covered with red soil is small, about three feet with two flat stones on either side.
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“The family buried the boy in the morning. But, the dogs have again scratched the grave,” says Shaikh Usman, standing within the premises of Dargah Hyder Shah Qadri.
Anas Ahmed, the two-and-a-half-year-old boy, had just stepped out of his grandmother’s house when he was attacked by strays. The CCTV footage captured by one of the residents showed the boy being set upon by the dogs and dragged at 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday.
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The boy breathed his last after a five-hour struggle at a public hospital. Hours later, the only sound on 7th street Bada Bazaar Golconda is the hum of air coolers. The stretch of road where children usually play is deserted. The wandering goats are nowhere to be seen. The strays that sit under the peepal tree inside Dargah Hyder Shah Qadri have disappeared.
“We have beaten them. They are being chased and beaten,” says a resident of the area. “Even adults are not feeling safe. A few days back, a dog jumped on a two-wheeler rider and he got injured. There are about 50 dogs that jump the wall from military area and look for food here,” says Shaik Usman, a tourist guide, whose four-year-old grandson, Abu Bakr, now walks around with a stick for safety.
The problem of strays attacking children is not something new in Hyderabad. In May 2020, a six-year-old girl was killed at Boduppal; in January 2021, a nine-year-old boy was mauled by strays while he was flying a kite at Bahadurpura.
A 2012 study found that a majority of dog bite incidents happen during pre-monsoon season (40.8%). “Nearly 90% of the dogs inside the Golconda Fort have been treated under the Animal Birth Control programme. When we surveyed the area after the incident, we found only two untreated dogs,” said an official.
According to a GHMC official, the civic body now plans to seek permission to carry out the ABC programme in the area under military jurisdiction and create a boundary to prevent animal trespass.