QUETTA: Three women and six children of a family died after inhaling poisonous gas emitted by an electricity generator in Killi Karbala area of Pishin district early on Thursday morning.
A Levies official said the family had not switched off the petrol-run generator installed near a washroom in the house before going to bed, adding that there was no electricity at the time.
“Nine members of the family — three women, four girls and two boys — died after carbon monoxide from the generator filled the room,” he said.
The incident took place in Ibrahimzai locality of Killi Karbala, near the Afghan border, mostly inhabited by Tareen, Kakar and Achakzai tribes. Most of the tribesmen run hotels and restaurants in Karachi.
Pishin Deputy Commissioner Bashir Ahmed Bazai said the head of the ill-fated family, Qari Abdul Zahir, also ran a hotel in Karachi.
“Smoke and carbon accumulated in the room because of continuous running of the generator. The women and children were asleep in the same room because of severe cold,” he said, adding that other members of the family opened the door after seeing thick smoke coming out of the room.
Soon after receiving information about the tragic incident, Levies personnel and the deputy commissioner rushed to the area and shifted the bodies to the Pishin District Headquarters Hospital. Doctors said the deaths were caused by inhaling carbon monoxide.
The bodies were handed over to relatives after legal formalities.
The dead were identified as Bibi Zahida, wife of Qari Abdul Zahir; Bibi Zainab, wife of Mohammad Ismail; Shakira, wife of Gul Badin; Zohaib Shah, 3; Zubair Shah, 6; Tanzila, 3; Laiba,
6; Fatima, 2; and Saqiba, 14.
Family sources told Dawn that Zainab and Shakira were sisters and married into the same family.
The boys and girls who died were their children. Their third sister lives in Quetta.
“Some of our relatives who live in Islamabad and Karachi reached Killi Karbala in the evening and were in great shock and grief,” a relative of the family said.
The deceased were laid to rest in a graveyard in Killi Karbala.
A large number of people attended the funeral.
Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2015
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