Tariq Saeed Peshawar
In a horrific incident as many as nine people of a family including a mother and her eight children lost their lives in the outskirts of Abbotabad Sunday wee hours. The ill-fated family fell victim to roof collapse due to fire.
Reports reaching here said the family of Zakir Abbasi were asleep in their mud house in Abbottabad’s Tahari village when the roof of their house caved in due to heavy fire believed to be caused by the electricity short-circuit on the night between Saturday and Sunday. The members of the ill-fated family, the locals said, were trapped under the rubbles. While the locals managed to pull out seven victims from the rubbles initially, the recuse teams that rushed to the site later retrieved two more people.
According to police source, on the midnight of Saturday and Sunday around 1.30 am, fire erupted in the house of Zakir Abbasi who is working at Karachi as labourer. The wood logs caught fire and roof of the house collapsed.
Police and Rescue 1122 reached the spot and recovered the dead bodies of Mst Nagina, wife of Zakir (45), daughter Saira Zakir (25), Tahira Zakir (18), Hashim Zakir (16), Laiba Bibi, Hashim (8), Hasnain Zakir (6), Fatima Bibi and Sufiyan S/Zakir (9 months).
The bodies of all nine family members were recovered from the rubble.
The Rescue 1122, along with three ambulances and locals made concerted efforts to extinguish the fire and rescue the residents. Unfortunately, the wood and clay house quickly caught fire, impeding rescue activities.
An official said that it was not possible to identify the bodies and mass graves were prepared for their burial.
