LAHORE, Sept 26: After losing their legs to a mysterious disease, the four children of a prayer leader are hoping against hope that their hands will not be affected.

The fear of losing their hands can be read in their eyes, especially the girls whose whole life lies ahead of them; they are just 14 and 18.

“I don’t know whether I will walk some day through limbs which is promised by an NGO but I don’t want to lose my hands,” says 14-year-old Nabila, who urges the government to provide financial assistance to his family so that she along with her other three siblings can undergo a proper treatment.

Disability has, however, not prevented her from carrying out household work the whole day. “Why are we the only victims of the disease in the whole area? I have failed to understand why? Like my friends I also want to roam around and play. Its tragic that the disease forced my elder sister, Shakeela, to quit her studies in class-IIV,” she added.

Unlike Nabeela, 18-year old Shakeela imparts education to a number of area children at home besides contributing to household work. She is also privileged to have a wheelchair and says it will be all right if she does not get the limbs.

The other affected children are Muhammad Usman, 38, Abu Bakar, 18, and Muhammad Ali, 16. Usman’s hands, however, remain safe from infection.

Living in Minhala village of Wagah area, some eight kilometres from the BRB Canal, all five of them started contracting the disease between the age of eight and 12. An infection what they say caused a boil on their feet which infected their legs and eventually led to amputation.

Though the children’s father Sufi Abdur Rehman Naqshbandi holds a “mysterious disease” responsible for amputation, it appears that the children could not go through proper treatment and all the doctors could offer was amputation of legs.

“When an infection caused a boil to Usman’s feet some 18 years ago, I took him to a local doctor and a Hakeem for treatment but could not find any remedy. Then we visited private hospitals in Raiwind and Gulberg but to no avail. We even visited hospitals like Mayo and Shaikh Zayed but the doctors failed to diagnose the disease,” Sufi Rehman said.

He also disclosed that his spiritual leader had advised him not to waste time visiting hospitals for the cure of his first child (Usman), as the amputation had been ordained. “He asked me to just take care of him at home,” Sufi said. However, he said, he was not sure whether his other children fell a victim to the disease for disobeying his spiritual leader.

All the affected children and the remaining family members are more than certain that it is a mysterious disease, yet to be diagnosed.

Sufi Rehman has four more children — Salam, 36, Kalsoom, 25, Muhammad Omar, 23, and Abdul Mannan, 15, — they all are leading a normal life and no infection had caused a boil to their feet when they were between eight and 12 years of age.

Three of them are married and have healthy children. Even Usman and Abu Bakar are married and have children. None of them has contracted the infection.

Doctors are of the view that the disease can be a neuro-vascular or peripheral-vascular one. However, thorough investigation is required to say something about it, they added. They also said the cousin marriage could be an important factor in this regard.

“The family is poor and it seems that it could not get the children properly treated in time. The infection aggravated and resulted in the amputation,” orthopaedic surgeon Dr Khalid Niazi said. He said he also visited the area and the disease was not viral, as no one in the village had reported this.

The Lahore Chamber and Commerce Industry has donated Rs50,000 to the family. Abu Bakar and Muhammad Ali have opened a general store with the amount outside their home and are earning a respectable living. “At least the shop has enabled us not to beg before anyone,” they said.

It is pertinent to mention that an NGO, Hope, has promised to provide the affected children with limps.