August 26 will always haunt the family of Ghulam Mohiuddin, an electrician from Yakutpura. On this day five members of his family sustained burns in a fire accident following LPG gas leakage at his house in Yakutpura. All of them succumbed to burns – three on Wednesday and two on Thursday.
On the fateful day, Mohiuddin left for prayers at the nearby mosque. A little later he got to know about the fire mishap and rushed home only to find the house engulfed in flames. “Five women were trapped inside,” recalls Mohiuddin with a shudder.
The victims included his two daughters, Ayesha Tasneem (32) and Asra Tahseen (22), his daughter-in- law Hafsa Siddiqua (24), mother-in-law Masood Fatima (64) and sister-in -law Azmath Sameena (35), a widow.
All suffered serious burns and were shifted to hospital in auto-rickshaws. Mohiuddin’s wife, Azmath Sakeena Sultana and another relative Bushra Nazreen (20), however, managed to run out for safety on noticing the fire.
Sameena and Fatima came to help the family prepare eatables for despatch to Mohiuddin’s son in Saudi Arabia. Hafsa was married just eight months ago and was to join her husband in Saudi Arabia shortly while Asra’s marriage was scheduled in January. “I did not harm anyone but why did such a tragedy happen to my family,” sobs Mohiuddin.
All house articles were gutted in the fire.
“We are now on the road,” he says.
The family comprising his wife, five daughters and two sons stayed in an asbestos and tiled roofed rented house. Attributing the fire mishap to gas leakage, he has demanded action.
“We asked the delivery boy to replace the cylinder sensing some defect but he did not oblige and went away. An hour later the tragedy occurred,” Masooduddin, a relative alleges.
