KASUR: A man allegedly burnt alive his three minor children over a domestic issue before setting himself on fire at Pindi Jattan village in the limits of Elahabad police station on Monday.

Three other family members also suffered burns while trying to save the children.

According to police, Muhammad Ali was married to Sakina Bibi, some five years back. The couple had three children -- a four-day-old daughter (yet to be named), one-and-a-half-year old son Abdullah and three-year-old daughter Haleema Bibi.

The police said Ali and Sakina had a quarrel over some domestic issue a couple of days back following which the wife left the house and went to her parents, leaving the children with her husband.

Ali made repeated calls to his wife and tried to convince her to return home but in vain, they said.

In a fit of rage, the husband doused the children with petrol and burnt them alive. Later, he also set himself ablaze.

Alarmed by the children’s cries, the other family members, including Ali’s mother Akbari Bibi, father Noor Muhammad and brother Ali Raza rushed to his room but it was too late. In a bid to extinguish the fire, they too suffered burns.

Rescue 1122 personnel, shifted the injured to the rural health centre at Elahabad where all the three children were pronounced dead, while Ali was referred to the Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, in a critical condition.

According to RHC staffers, Ali had suffered 80 percent burns.

It is pertinent to mention that there is no burns unit here.

Police shifted the children’s bodies to the district headquarters hospital for autopsy and were looking into the matter.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2017