Seven children among eight of a family burnt alive

SUKKUR: A woman and her seven children were burnt alive on Friday when their hut in the slums of Gorakh Hill caught fire.

The family of Kando Alkani, in order to cope with the biting cold, started a fire in their hut to get some warmth. Unfortunately, the fire got out of control and set the hut aflame when the family was asleep. It did not give the family enough time to run out of the hut and save their lives.

By the time the fire was extinguished, the woman and her seven children were dead. The bodies were shifted to a Dadu hospital where they were identified as Sharifa, 43, her daughters Momal, 7, Zarina, 4, and Sakina, 2. Her sons were identified as Waris, 4, Barkat, 8, Pahlwan, 5, and Naseer. The head of the family, Kando Alkani, received burn injuries.

Area people said that the temperature at the Gorakh Hill was minus two degrees Celsius at the time of the tragedy. Due to the hilly area, the fire brigade staff faced an uphill task in getting to the venue of the incident, and by the time they got there it was all over. Rafiq Ahmed Jamali, Chairman of the Gorakh Hill

Development Authority, said that he had informed the chief minister of Sindh about the tragic incident who then ordered the DC of Dadu to furnish a report to him on the terrible incident within 24 hours.

The Gorakh Hill station is 5,800 feet above the sea level in the Khirthar mountains range, 90 kilometers off Dadu. It forms a natural border between Sindh and Balochistan.