PESHAWAR, Jan 26: Most of the women admitted to the sole burns facility in Peshawar belong to Afghanistan, according to doctors. “Last year, we received 660 burns patients, including 387 women. Of these women, 190 were from Jalalabad, Kabul, Khost and other provinces of Afghanistan,” said a doctor at the burns unit of Peshawar’s Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH).

In 2005, the ward had received a total of 576 burns patients, including 298 women, he said, adding that 164 of the women were from Afghanistan.

"Most of these Afghan women succumb to wounds because of their late arrival at the facility in Peshawar,” he added.

Dwelling in camps under shaky conditions, Afghans were most vulnerable to burn injuries, doctors believe.

Since there is no hospital to deal with burns patients in the whole of Afghanistan, the patients are brought to Peshawar.

“Most of the women receive burn wounds from gas heaters,” said the doctor, adding that some of them had also attempted suicide.

At least 80 children also suffered burn injuries last year, said the doctors, adding that 30 of them could not survive.According to the doctors, the survival rate in case of burns patients ranges between 40 and 50 per cent. Even those who are lucky enough to survive burn wounds need multiple operations to turn normal. Most of them develop contracture which takes time to be treated.

They said half the women patients claimed to have received burn injuries accidentally.

The burns unit also receive adult patients from match factories.

“Some 40 people, injured while working in match factories, are received at the KTH every year,” said another doctor.

A paramedic claimed that of the women received at the hospital last year, at least 30, still in their teens, had been burnt intentionally by their in-laws.

To substantiate the claim, he said despite the fact that the women were married, they were brought to the hospital by their parents.

Their husbands did not pay them a single visit during their stay at the hospital, he added.