KARACHI, May 5: A major fire caused by a candle in the absence of electricity in a home in Bhutta village, Keamari, led to the death of a mother and her two daughters early Wednesday morning.
Three more daughters of the woman were hospitalized at the National Institute of Child Health as they inhaled excessive smoke and fell unconscious. The family members were all fast asleep when the fire broke out and engulfed the entire house. It started from the mattress where the candle was placed.
An official of the fire department said that mother Shah Begum, 40, and her daughters Shaista, 3 and Sitara, 5, died in their sleep. The other three children - Meena, aged 1, Fiza, 2 and Kainat, 6 - were found in a state of unconsciousness when rescue workers entered the house.
They were rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for treatment. Later, the three girls were referred to the NICH where they were admitted. The family head, Mohammad Imtiaz, returned home from his night duty, and found smoke coming out of his home and neighbours busy extinguishing the fire.
TPO Keamari Athar Rasheed Butt told Dawn that the mother had lit the candle in the night when there was no electricity. Later, she fell asleep, and when electricity was restored around 4 am, the fan started moving, causing the candle to fall on the foam mattress.
Hospital sources said that only Shaista suffered minor burn wounds, while the rest of the family members suffered from smoke inhalation. Police said that the neighbours managed to control the fire before the arrival of the fire brigade.
A senior police official said that the room had no proper ventilation which caused suffocation and led to fatalities.
SHOT DEAD: An activist of Muttahida Qaumi Movement was shot dead by unknown persons in Sharifabad early Wednesday morning. Police said Anwaruddin, 32, was sitting with his brother-in-law at a PCO near Abu Rehman ground in F.C. Area, when two unknown young men on a motorcycle came and opened fire on him.
The victim was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Hospital sources said that victim suffered five bullet wounds in the attack.
Anwar was an activist in Sector-157, Liaquatabad, and had a furniture business near Liaquatabad-10. He was later laid to rest at the New Karachi graveyard. Meanwhile, an unidentified body of a young man was found stuffed in a gunny bag in Azizabad on Wednesday.
Police said victim's throat was slit and the body was dumped near the railway tracks, near Bhangoria goth. Police shifted the body to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where hospital sources said that body was over 12-hour old.
Following the autopsy examination, the body was shifted to the Edhi morgue for identification, police added. A middleaged man who was shot during a car snatching bid in Bahadurabad on Tuesday night succumbed to his wounds in the hospital in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Police said Edwin, a resident of Mehmoodabad, was having snacks with his family when two armed men came and demanded the keys of his Pajero. As Edwin resisted, they shot him in the face and fled. He was rushed to the Aga Khan Hospital where he died during treatment, police said.