Daily Times

KARACHI: A weekend picnic turned into a tragic incident when six members of a family were burnt alive while five others sustained injuries in Garden area in District South of Karachi due to criminal negligence of the van driver who fled away from the scene.

The van was rented to the unfortunate family for picnic trip who was en-route to Hawksbay on early Sunday morning at around 6am. At the time of the accident eleven persons of the ill-fated family were onboard the van near the Karachi’s Zoological Garden as they had to pick some other relatives from the Garden area before moving towards the Hawksbay.

“I was sitting along with my two children at a seat next to driver while the rest of my family members were sitting on the back seats,” narrated survivor and a witness Muhammad Ali. “I felt a sound like a “spark” from the back and asked driver to stop a van.”

He said that the driver stopped a van immediately and he, his two children and a driver quickly went out of a van to check the van. “But before we could do anything suddenly a fire broke out with huge flames,” he explained. “My family was shouting and crying for help but I could not help them and they burnt alive in front of me”, he said.

Ali said that none of his family member could come out of van to rescue themselves as the door even the windows of the van were closed. But two – including his son and a nephew were rescued by a crowd of people by breaking the windows but in injured condition.

Ali lost his wife and a daughter, his brother, sister-in-law and two nephews in the tragic incident. “I just want to ask the authorities what was our fault. Were we wrong that we decided picnic for our children”, he questioned.

The survivor blamed the van driver and the government for the incident. “The flames were very dangerous. I didn’t see the driver after the fire erupted,” he explained.

While hearing a shouting of the burning people alive from inside a van, the passersby immediately reached to help but they were also unable to do anything at the moment. “It was really an unforgettable incident,” said Azhar Khan, a resident of the area.

“We had no idea as what to do. We were just throwing water and sand to douse the fire”, he said.

The witnesses claimed that all the victims had died before the arrival of the fire brigade.

Their bodies were taken to Civil Hospital, Karachi for medico legal formalities where doctors said that the bodies were chattered.

The victims were identified as 45-year-old Muhammad Saleem, son of Muhammad Umar, his wife Nelofar, 40, his two-year-old son, Abdul Hadi, his 14-year-old son Sheharyar, his niece 14-year-old Mehwish, daughter of Muhammad Ali and his sister-in-law Binish, 35, wife of Muhammad Ali. Saleem’s another son, Sheroz, 8, and a niece Marium, 17, daughter of Muhammad Ali was injured.

Police officials said that the two CNG cylinders remained intact and believed short circuiting could be behind the fire. However, they are yet to determine the exact nature of the fire as investigations are underway.

After the incident the driver, Saad, managed to escape from the spot but he and the owner of the van, Farhan, were detained latter on as the police had detained his brother and father in a bid to pressurize. However, an FIR of the incident has yet to be registered. “We cannot say anything exactly about how the fire broke out,” said Garden SHO Ghulam Nabi Afridi. “But it is confirmed that it is a criminal negligence that claimed six innocent lives and FIR will be registered”.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal and IGP Allah Dino Khowaja have taken a notice of the incident and sought a report from Additional IG Karachi Ghulam Qadir Thebo as well as transport minister Nasir Hussain Shah to form a committee to probe the incident. The committee will determine whether the van which caught fire was fit enough to be on road and the cause of the fire.

Published in Daily Times, August 14^th 2017.