ALPURI: A doctor, his wife and a daughter suffocated owing to gas leak in their house in Lewanai Koz Kalley area, on the outskirts of the district headquarters, Alpuri, on the night between Saturday and Sunday.

Mujeeb Shah, a physiotherapist, who had reached Shangla from Iran on Saturday night, was asleep along with family in a room of his house when gas leak from a cylinder suffocated them.

Other family members had to break the room door after they failed to get any response from the inmates on Sunday morning. The three victims were taken to the district headquarters hospital, Shangla, where they were declared dead.

They were later buried at their ancestral graveyard in Lewanai village amid moving scenes. A large number of people, relatives and friends participated in the funeral prayers.

Dr Mujeeb Shah was performing duty as a physiotherapist at a hospital in Iran and had come home on leave.

Meanwhile, chilly weather has paralysed life in district Shangla. The cold wind from snow-covered mountains is forcing local residents to remain indoors most of the time. Thick clouds over the sky have also contributed to the chill plunging the mercury below zero centigrade.

The people are stressed out as they have to cope with high price of fuel wood and sometimes its shortage. The residents, particularly children and aged people, are suffering from fever, flu, cough, and other chest related diseases, due to the ongoing cold wave.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2016