RAWALPINDI: The wife of the police officer who died of burn injuries when a fire started in the room he was sleeping in with his family, has had four of her fingers on her right hand and her left hand amputated on Wednesday and is said to be in critical condition.

Doctors said if they had not amputated her hand and fingers, she would have lost use of her arms.

Ruqaya Bano and her husband, 30-year-old Salman Naeem, who was a police officer, were burned in a fire in their house on Adiala Road on Wednesday, Jan 16. The fire had started when Salman lit a match in the room, which had filled with gas from a leak.

Other members of the family, including the couple’s four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter remained safe in the accident.

Salman’s younger brother, Sanaullah says the leak occurred due to low gas pressure.

“Ruqaya has not been told of her husband’s death,” Sanaullah told Dawn. He said she had regained consciousness one or twice and had asked about her husband, son and daughter.

“We did not tell her that her husband had died because it may have worsened her condition but we told her that her children were safe and were playing on the roof of their house,” he said.

Sanaullah said Ruqaya and her husband had been happily married for five years and that it will be very difficult for the family to break the news of his death to her.

In an unrelated incident, 13 members of the same family including eight children sustained burn injuries when a fire started due to a gas leak in Kahuta. Two of the victims, both minors, are said to be in critical condition.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2017