LAHORE: The Punjab government on Thursday stopped the City District Government of Lahore (CDGL) from conducting inquiry into the recent deaths of six siblings at Kot Khawaja Saeed, entrusting the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team (CMIT) with the task.

The decision was taken by the government after Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the locality to condole death of siblings with their parents and other family members.

Officials say the CM also expressed anger with Lahore Commissioner Abdullah Khan Sumbal and District Coordination Officer retired Captain Muhammad Usman after the deceased’s family and locals complained against the late arrival of Rescue 1122 and the fire brigade teams to the incident place. The CM met the father of the deceased siblings as well as some locals on the spot.

CMIT to complete inquiry; CM meets victims’ family

Talking to Dawn, a member of the team that was earlier probing into the incident said they were about to accomplish the task as they had recorded statements of about 14 people, including two uncles of deceased children. Only the statements of their parents were to be recorded which the team was going to do on Thursday.

“When we visited the incident place on Thursday morning, the CM came there and ordered shifting of inquiry to the CMIT. So we were asked to only assist the CMIT rather than conducting it independently,” the official added.

He said the team had already seized the official record related to time of the call made to the fire brigade and 1122, the response time and rescue operation, etc. Similarly, the samples of burnt material to find out the cause of fire were also sent to the forensic laboratory and test results were expected to be received by the team on Friday (today), the official added.

“Though we couldn’t record the key witnesses’ statements (the parents) that are very important in view of finding facts, the statement of one of the friends of the siblings’ father is also very important. In his statement, he said that he (the father) was with him at a badminton court at time of the incident and not at the shrine of Data Ganj Bakhsh,” he said.

The official added that according to aforementioned statement, the eldest deceased daughter called her father on mobile phone three times and informed him about the fire. However, the father went home finally after he smelled something wrong happened at his home.

“In the 2.5 kanal house, families of five brothers, including the siblings’ father, reside in separate portions. The male kids died of severe burns and the female children, present in other room, expired due to suffocation,” the official said.

He said the CMIT had also recorded statements of the sibling’s parents on Thursday but he couldn’t see that. Hopefully, the CMIT would complete the inquiry within next couple of days. He said the mother of siblings was reportedly present at home with kids at the time of incident as she luckily succeeded in coming out to seek help of relatives residing in other portions of the premises and the locals.

“But it’s really unfortunate that the kids couldn’t be saved despite efforts,” the official said.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2015

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