HARIPUR: Four members of a family, including three children, were burnt to death when the room they were sleeping in caught fire in Sohbra City Colony of Tarbela Dam, police said here on Friday.

Electricity short-circuiting was the cause of the accident, SHO Ghazi Nawaz Khan told mediapersons.

He said wife of Sardar Mohammad Shehzad, an employee of T-5 project of Tarbela Dam, his two minor sons and their cousin were sleeping in the room.

He quoted eyewitnesses as saying that after noticing smoke and flames billowing out of the house at around 11am they informed the Tarbela Dam administration and the Ghazi police. The SHO said fire tenders were moved to the house. He said the room was completely burnt and charred bodies of the woman, her two sons and a niece were found.

Police said the circumstantial evidence indicated that the room’s carpet caught fire due to the flames caused by electricity short-circuiting.

The police said the house owner, who had left in the morning for duty, ruled out the chances of any criminal act in the burning of his family.

The bodies were shifted to the tehsil headquarters hospital, wherefrom they were taken to native Namli Maira village in Abbottabad district.

The deceased were identified as Nagina Bibi, 26, her sons Ayan, 5, Hamdan, 3, and children’s maternal cousin, Hooriya Bibi, 10.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2020