After UP's Sitapur, Dog Menace Grips Ghaziabad as Two-Year-Old Mauled to Death

New Delhi: After Sitapur’s dog attack deaths, the menace has now gripped Delhi’s neighbourhood after a two-year-old girl was mauled to death by a pack of stray dogs in Ghaziabad’s Modi Nagar town.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, the incident occurred on Monday afternoon in Bheem Nagar area after Shivaniya went missing around 2:30 pm. She was found in a field next to her house with multiple injuries allegedly due to attack by stray dogs.

“She was attacked by a pack of dogs and was dragged to a nearby field. The girl was found with multiple injuries, and was taken to a hospital where she succumbed," said Dharmendra Chauhan, circle officer (Modi Nagar).

The girl’s father, Neetu, is an electrician and was out for work while her mother Payal had gone out and had left the girl playing outside the house.

“She was playing when I left her in the house and went out to fetch water. When I returned, she was found missing. After a lot of search, we found her in nearby fields. We immediately picked her up while one dog was still around and trying to attack her," said Poonam, the victim’s aunt.

“The girl died after she was dragged and attacked by stray dogs. There is no foul play," said Vaibhav Krishna, senior superintendent of police, Ghaziabad.

Dr Abhishek Jaiswal, the on-duty doctor who examined the girl on Monday said that she had already died before she could be brought to the Modi Nagar CHC. “There was no active bleeding as she had already died. Prima facie the injuries could be due to attack by dogs," he said.

“The injured girl was brought by 25-30 people including the local councillor. Our doctor informed me that it was due to attack by dogs," said Dr Sushil Siddharth, in-charge of the government CHC. The police said a pack of stray dogs resides in the fields next to the house of the victim. The agitated locals said that there have been previous incident where the stray dogs had attacked children in the locality.

The dog attacks in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur have already traumatized the residents with 14 deaths reported so far since May 1. Two weeks ago, CM Yogi Adityanath had instructed his administration to keep a tab on stray dogs in the area, and had visited the families of the deceased children. He had also announced an ex-gratia amount of Rs 2 lakh for the victims' kin.

Besides children, a 55-year-old woman was also injured recently after being attacked by stray dogs in Khairabad area of Sitapur, despite the precautionary drone-night vision measures taken by the administration to check the menace.