Abject poverty: Four of a family die in roof collapse

‘Cracks had appeared in the walls of their house after the recent earthquakes’

FAISALABAD: Four members of a family died and one was injured after the roof of their house in Mandi Shah Jewna, Jhang, collapsed on Monday. The deceased included a young woman and her three children. Her husband is critically injured and is undergoing treatment at the Jhang district headquarters hospital.

A Qadirpur police spokesperson said the roof of the house, owned by Muhammad Asif, who lived near a railway crossing, had been dilapidated. “It was an accident waiting to happen,” he said.

On Monday, the roof caved in while Asif’s family was asleep. The five were caught under debris. Scores of people in the neighbourhood gathered and informed the Rescue-1122. They tried to pull out the victims from the debris but were unable to do so.

Rescue-1122 officials finally managed to pull them out. The spokesperson said that 28-year-old Shahzadi, Asif’s wife, and her children five-year-old Muhammad Ahmad, three-year-old Muhammad Musa and two-year-old Ayesha had died before they could be given medical treatment. The police spokesperson said that Asif was taken to the Jhang district headquarters hospital where doctors treating him said his condition was critical.

Muhammad Aslam, a neighbour, told journalists that cracks had appeared in the walls of Asif’s house after a recent earthquake. He said the house was already decrepit. “But the family was too poor to afford repair work,” he said.

The Qadirpur SHO said they had taken the bodies to a mortuary for post-mortem examination and later handed them over to the relatives of the deceased for burial. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has expressed sorrow  over the death of the mother and three children. He said the family had his sympathies. He also sought a report from the district administration regarding the tragic incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2016.