Gas explosion: Injured student dies a week later in hospital

Four others injured in incident under treatment at private hostel in Abbottabad

ABBOTTABAD: A college student, who was severely burnt last week in a gas explosion, succumbed to his injuries in the early hours of Wednesday, hospital and family sources said. Shababul Islam Abbasi, a resident of village Bakot, was a second year student at a private college of Abbottabad. He was living in Ali Hostel, a building, on Nari Road.

Sources said that on last Wednesday, Abbasi and four of his friends and classmates  came back home from the local market after dinner.

They smelled gas and one of them lit a match to identify the source of the leakage. As a result, an explosion took place and fire engulfed the entire room.  All five students suffered burn injuries, while windows of the room were shattered from the impact.

The injured students, later identified as Shababul Islam Abbasi, Sayam Abbasi, Asfandyar Abbasi, Tauqir Abbasi and Ahmed Abbasi, were rushed to the Ayub Teaching Hospital. Shabab succumbed to his burns during the early hours of Wednesday, while the other four students were in critical condition, hospital sources said.

Naveed Akram Abbasi, a senior journalist and the maternal uncle of Shabab, said that from Hasan Abadal to the Sost border with G-B, there were no burn units to provide proper treatment to victims.

He said his nephew was the second burn victim to die in the last three weeks as there was no proper treatment available at the Ayub Teaching Hospital. The facility is the only tertiary care hospital between Hasan Abdal and G-B.

He said despite the fact that the Hazara division contributes billions to the national and provincial exchequers ,  poor treatment facilities for burn victims speaks volumes about the Sehat ka Insaf campaign of the K-P government.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2016.