Woman, 2 minor children charred in mysterious Kishtwar blaze

Ramban, Nov 11: In a mysterious fire incident, three members of a family including a woman and her two minor children were charred to death in Drabshalla area of Kishtwar early Monday morning.

Police said that a fire incident occurred in Bhugrana Saroor, Badhat area of Kishtwar early Monday morning, claiming three lives.

It said a fire had broken out in one of the rooms at the residence of Khursheed Ahmad in Badhat Jashar Drabshalla, claiming the lives of his wife and two minor children, who were in deep sleep and probably got trapped inside the room.

A Police officer said a distress call was received from a citizen and after that Police responded promptly, the Fire and Emergency Department was also alerted but by the time they arrived, the flames had engulfed the entire house and caused severe damage, leaving no chance for rescuing occupants.

Police identified the three deceased as Nazia Begum and her daughter, Amna Bano, 7, and son, Rizwan, 4.

Police said that the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained.

SHO Police Station Kishtwar, Inspector Firdous Ahmed said that the investigation of the case is underway.

A Police official investigating the case said, “We are working to determine whether or not it was an accidental fire.”

Doctors at District Hospital Kishtwar said that after medical examinations, postmortem and collecting samples, the bodies of the trio were handed over to the relatives.

The incident has sent shockwaves through the local community, which is mourning the sudden and tragic loss of the family.

Meanwhile relatives of the deceased woman smelled foul play in the fire incident and in the death of the trio in the mysterious fire incident.

They said that the relations between the deceased woman and her husband had remained strained for a long time.

They assembled at District Hospital Kishtwar and levelled serious allegations against the deceased woman’s husband, Kursheed Ahmad and demanded an investigation into this mysterious fire incident and staged a protest.

MLA Kishtwarm Shagun Parihar, met the relatives and the protesting people and assured them that stern action would be taken against anyone found involved in the incident.

Senior political leader, Ghulam Muhammad Saroori termed the incident “murder” and demanded stern action against the culprits as per the law.

DySP Kishtwar Ishan Gupta assured the protestors of action as per the law.

Sources said husband of the deceased woman, Khursheed Ahmed was detained by Police in Kishtwar.

In another fire incident, a Gujjar Bakerwal Hostel, Chatroo, was destroyed on Sunday night.

Officials said that the building of the Gujjar-Bakerwal Hostel, Chatroo, caught fire but no loss of life was reported.

They said that on receiving information, Police, Army and fire tenders of the Fire and Emergency Department reached the spot and controlled the fire.

However, till then the building of hostel was destroyed.