An infant was burnt to death when the room caught fire from a candle during a power outage in Daska city’s congested Islampura area on Thursday morning. The one-and-a-half-year old Ali Hassan was asleep when his mother lit a candle in the room for her husband Barkat Ali to get ready for work. She got busy in other chores and then left the house to drop her children to a local school. Meanwhile, the candle, which was placed on a table, fell and rolled down to the bed on which the infant was sleeping. The bed caught fire in no time and suffocating smoke filled the room, while the child was burnt to death.
Locals called the fire fighters, who extinguished the fire and pulled out the charred body of the unfortunate child. Her mother lost her consciousness after seeing her son’s body. The aggrieved family has announced to go to the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the Gujranwala Electric Power Company (GEPCO) in Daska. Talking to reporters, the weeping father of the child said the tragedy could not have occurred if there was no load shedding. He said the child’s family had every right to protest and go to the LHC against GEPCO-Daska in this regard.
