Kulgam, Mar 17: Three family members died here on Wednesday allegedly due to emission of a poisonous gas from banned narcotic substance they were extracting from 20-feet deep trench in Tantripora Village here.
 The deceased were identified as 20-year-old Muhammad Afzal Bhat son of Ghulam Nabi Bhat, his brother Abdul Rashid Bhat, 25, and their cousin Tariq Ahmad Bhat, 27, son of Ghulam Ahmad Bhat.
 Police reports said the deceased had dumped the Fukki in the trench adjacent to a septic tank near their house. 
 “The deceased were involved in Fukki smuggling. On Tuesday night they decided to extract the banned substance as they were apprehensive of police raid after having learnt that Shopian police had arrested one of their close accomplices,” said a top police official. 
 “The trio had gone deep inside the trench on 10 PM on Tuesday. As the narcotic substance was dumped long ago, it emitted a poisonous gas which caused their death,” he added.
 The trio was rushed to the sub-district hospital here by the villagers, but were declared brought dead, police said.
 The post-mortem of the deceased was conducted to ascertain the exact cause of the death.
 When contacted Superintendent of Police, Kulgam, Keshav Ram Chaurasia said, “ Though there are reports that the deceased were taking away the dumped narcotic material from the trench which caused their death, the actual cause will be ascertained once the post mortem report is received.”

Lastupdate on : Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:00:00 IST