Mother, 2 children charred to death in J&K’s Kishtwar

Jammu (The Uttam Hindu): A woman and her two children were charred to death in a tragic blaze overnight in Jammu & Kashmir’s Kishtwar district. Officials said that in a midnight blaze in Jashar village of Badhat area of Kishtwar district, a mother and her two children were killed. A fire broke out in the house of Khurshid Ahmad in Jashar village. When the fire started in one of the rooms, the mother and her two children were asleep. Due to flames and suffocation, they could not escape from the house. The mother and her two children died in this blaze.

“The victims have been identified as Nazia and her two children Amna (7) and Rizwan (4). A case has been registered and the cause of fire is being ascertained,” officials said. Last month, a devastating fire destroyed over 70 houses in the far-off Marwah area of Kishtwar district. Fire and emergency services could not reach the place in time and the villagers, with the help of local administration, tried to douse the flames literally with their bare hands. Later, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary visited Marwah. Omar Abdullah sanctioned relief for the victims and requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi for assistance from the PM relief fund.

The Chief Minister also ordered the setting up of a fire and emergency station in the area to deal with unforeseen eventualities. Fortunately, no loss of life had occurred in the Marwah fire incident. There has been an unprecedented dry spell in Kashmir Valley and also in the Jammu division, which has made residential/commercial areas vulnerable to fire incidents. Even forest fires have been raging during this period at a number of places in the Valley and Poonch/Rajouri areas of Jammu division. The continued dry spell also adversely affects the prospects of a good Rabi crop in J&K.