GILGIT, Aug 4: The Northern Areas administration on Monday ordered a judicial inquiry into Saturday’s incident in Giyal.
The sources said the district and sessions judge Chilas would conduct the inquiry into the incident to ascertain the “real” causes of the blaze that left 44 dead and 127 injured.
The sources in the NAs home department said the federal government had decided to send forensic experts to detect more explosives that might be stored in the surrounding houses. They suspected that explosives were stored at least in two houses in Giyal village.
The sources said the experts would also monitor the work of debris clearance by the rescue workers. They said that though the Explosives Prohibitive Act was extended to the Northern Areas, it was not being implemented here in letter and in spirit.
They said the government was taking all steps to ensure its implementation to avoid a repeat of such an incident in the future.
CRISIS CELL: Meanwhile, the Northern Areas administration on Sunday set up a crisis management cell in Chilas, the district headquarters of Diamer, to launch a relief-and-rescue operation in the explosion-hit Giyal village in the subdivision Darel.
The sources in the NAs home department said that besides destroying some 45 houses, the fire also partially damaged scores of others in the Giyal village.
The sources said that the NAs administration had offered a relief package on an urgent basis to the affected villagers in Giyal.
They said that 45 families were the worst-hit in Sunday’s blaze who had been given 100kg flour, 20kg rice, 10kg ghee, 20kg sugar, 5kg milk-powder, 2kg tea, 10kg dal and one tent to each affected family.
The sources said the Northern Areas administration has recommended enhancing the existing compensation rates for every employed person killed to Rs50,000 and for every unemployed person killed to Rs30,000.
Similarly, the sources said, the existing rates for every house damaged — cemented and non-cemented — have also been recommended to be increased from the existing level of Rs5,000 and Rs2,000, respectively.
It has suggested a payment of Rs10,000 to each person injured in the blaze.
Agencies add: A six-month-old boy was pulled alive on Monday from the rubble of homes flattened by the explosion, a PTV report said.
“Six-month-old boy Mehboobur Rahman, buried under the rubble, was rescued on Monday morning,” the PTV journalist reported from the village, adding his mother had been killed in the accident.
The boy spent over 36 hours without any food and milk. He was smiling when he was rescued, he added.
Funeral prayers were offered on a hilltop close to the site of the blast in the evening and the victims were buried.
Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed castigated the contractor, Waris Khan, for not adopting “adequate measures” for safekeeping the explosives.
Residents were still sifting through the rubble for two or three missing people.
“We fear that the missing are also dead,” said Fida Mohammad Noushad, a senior official, speaking at the scene of the accident.