Three children burnt alive

Three siblings aged five to seven were burnt alive when the thatched hut or jhuggi they were sleeping in caught fire due to sparks flying from a bonfire lit by slum dwellers in the Mianwali Colony slum of the Kati Pahari area late on Friday night.

The locals tried to extinguish the fire by themselves, but strong winds stoked the flames that charred the jhuggi made of reeds and bamboo like a cremation pyre killing Uzma, 5, Aqsa, 6, and Muhammad, 7, all children of Rehman Gul.

"Parents of the children were not present at the incident," said Pirabad police station SHO Mukhtar Panhwar, who was present at the scene.

The bodies of the children were moved with the help of Chippa volunteers to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal and medical formalities, he said.

The person who came to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital with the bodies said that there were six children in the jhuggi, of them three were awake and ran out to save themselves as soon as the fire erupted, while those sleeping were burnt alive in raging flames.