Reconciliation bid proves fatal for man

A man received 80% burn injuries after he had been set on fire by his brother-in-law.

He was shifted to Lahore from Pakpattan Hospital in a critical condition.

According to police, the incident took place in the Saat Marla Scheme where Muhammad Ashiq had gone to bring his estranged wife home. However, his wife refused to go with him. At this point, he grabbed his child from his wife.

This infuriated Ashiq’s brother-in-law, Shaban, who poured petrol on the former and set him on fire.

Rescue 1122 shifted the victim to Pakpattan Hospital from where he was referred to Lahore. Police registered a case on the complaint of the victim's brother, Mohammad Ahmed, and started searching for the accused.

In October last year, seven people, including four children, had been killed in Muzaffargarh after their house was set on fire allegedly by the relatives of a woman who had married a member of the family of her own will.

The woman and her four-month-old son had been among the victims of the arson attack in the Pir Jahanian area. However, her husband escaped the attack because he had not been present in the house at the time.

Police officials had said they had seized a can of petrol used to set the house on fire, shifted the bodies to a hospital for postmortem and registered a case on the complaint of the woman’s husband, Mehboob.

Read: Four children among 7 killed in house fire

The complainant’s father-in-law and brother-in-law had been nominated in the murder case. Mehboob, a resident of Pir Jahanian in Muzaffargarh district, had married Fauzia Bibi about one-and-a-half years ago in the Mahira area of Rohilanwali. The woman’s father, Manzoor Hussain, and brothers, Nawaz and Sabir had been reportedly upset over the marriage.

They had allegedly sprayed the house of Mehboob with petrol, set it on fire and fled.

Rescue 1122 staff dowsed the fire after an hour's efforts.

According to rescue workers, there had been seven people in the house, and all of them died after their entire bodies were burnt. The dead included four children and two women.

The children who had died in the incident were aged from four months to 12 years.

The deceased had been identified as Mehboob’s wife, Fauzia Bibi, her four-month-old son Ahmed, brother Farooq, sister-in-law Khurshid Mai, and nephews 12-year-old Shah Nawaz, nine-year-old Sarfraz and two-year-old Yaqub.

The bodies were taken to the Muzaffargarh District Headquarters Hospital for postmortem.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2022.