QUETTA: A trader and his three young sons died of gas suffocation on Tuesday.

Police officials said Amanullah, a resident of Killi Kamalo, on the outskirts of Quetta, was running his business in the Jan Muhammad Road area. He was returning home with his three sons on Monday night after closing his shop, but his car developed some fault. He decided to stay in a room adjacent to his shop.

Due to extreme cold weather, he lit LPG heater and they all slept in the room. The gas heater went off sometime late in the night. Due to leakage of LPG from the cylinder, gas accumulated in the room.

“As result of leakage, all four members of the family inhaled gas while in sleep and died,” the officials said.

They said when Amanullah’s fourth son came to meet his father at his shop on Tuesday morning, he found it locked. Other shopkeepers informed him that his father and brothers were sleeping in the room adjacent to the shop. When he knocked on the door, he found no response from inside. He then informed the police who later broke the door and entered the room, only to find all of them dead.

Police shifted the bodies to Civil Hospital and later handed them over to the family after completing medico-legal formalities.

The deceased boys were identified as Hafizullah, Mohibullsh and Qari Habibullsh.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2023