December 29, 2001	Saturday	Shawwal 13, 1422

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JHANG, Dec 28: Six members of a family were burnt to death in a ‘mystery’ fire in the Pawaliwala locality of Chak 11 near Adda Bhareri, some 48 kilometres from here, on the Jhang-Bhakkar road on Wednesday night.

The incident came to the notice of neighbours at around 9am on Thursday when they saw smoke coming out from one of the rooms. They rushed to the scene and found the bodies of Manzoor Husain Kumhar, a labourer, his wife Mariam, son Younis, and daughters Aisha, Safia and Nasreen lying in the room. They were half burnt.

Neighbours told police that Manzoor’s elder sons Qasim and Aziz had been in Karachi in connection with their job. Qasim was involved in the murder of a woman of the same clan. He was released a couple of months ago after serving a seven-year term.

They said the main gate and doors of both the rooms were open. They suspected that the fire was a drama played by the family of the slain woman. However, exact cause of death would be known after the postmortem examination which was conducted on Friday morning.

According to police, an earthen lamp and a bottle containing kerosene was placed in a corner of the room.

Police have registered a case on the report of Manzoor’s brother, Bashir Ahmad.