Four brothers suffocate to death

Victims had left the generator running overnight and died from inhaling the toxic fumes

KARACHI: Four persons die due to suffocation in Landhi on Tuesday morning. According to police and rescue services, the victims were brothers and hailed from Pishin, Balochistan. They lived in a house located in Kanta area of Landhi, where they were found dead in their room. According to police sources, the ill-fated brothers had left the generator running the previous night and the smoke emitting from it filled their room, resulting in their deaths. The deceased have been identified as 22-year-old Anwar, 20-year-old Umar, 18-year-old Usman and 16-year-old Hamza. The brothers owned the house in which they were found dead and ran a local cafe in the same area.

The victims' family refused post-mortems of the deceased. They said that power supply had been suspended in the area from the last three days and two close relatives of the deceased had visited their house and had dinner together. The relatives had gone home after dinner and the victims had gone to sleep after switching on the generator. They couldn't get up for prayer in the morning. Their relatives and neighbours knocked at their door when they didn't wake up. The relatives entered the house through a window when there was no response for some time.

They said that one of the brothers was sleeping in one room and the rest were sleeping in the other. They had placed the generator beside the toilet and there was no way for the smoke to escape.

Sharafi Goth police SHO Fahad Hussain said that investigators have also collected food samples from the house which will be sent to the laboratory. The statements of the two relatives who had dinner with the deceased have also been recorded by the police. No evidence of poison or toxic material have been found from the food.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 14^th, 2019.