No fire tender reached the spot and the villagers had to put out the fire on their own. PHOTO: FILE
SUKKUR:
Five people of a family, including women and children, were burnt to death and six others were injured when a high-tension conductor snapped and fell upon a truck on National Highway.
The incident took place near the Ali Nawaz Panhwar village situated in the Abad police limits of Jacobabad on Thursday evening. A nomadic Marhata family that lived near Jara Wah was on its way to their native village of Liaquatpur in Punjab when their truck was struck by a high-tension conductor running overhead.
The truck immediately caught fire, due to which five people died on the spot, while six others were injured.
Those burnt to death were identified as Talib Hussain, Parveen, Toti, Vishal and Rafiqa. The injured - Saeeda, Farzana, Sassui, eight-year-old Fauzia, six-year-old Akhtiar and 10-year-old Mir Mohammad - were shifted to Civil Hospital, Jacobabad. The condition of two of the injured children, Fauzia and Akhtiar, is said to be critical. Reports said that no fire tender reached the spot and the villagers had to put out the fire on their own.
A large number of nomad families from the Punjab and Balochistan move to different parts of Sindh during the winter. Most of these families earn their livelihood through labour in crop fields and date and guava farms, while others beg to earn for the family. When summer arrives, these families head back to their villages and this ill-fated family was one of them.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2014.
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