Kupwara: Five members of a non-local family, living at main town Kralpora in north Kashmir's Kupwara district, died of asphyxiation Tuesday night, Police said Wednesday.
According to locals, the wife of one Majid Ansari of Bijnore, Uttar Pradesh developed labour pain following which she was shifted to a private hospital at Chogal Handwara where she delivered a baby boy.
"The family reached back at 2:30 am and to escape the intense cold lit up a gas heater present in the room for warmth. On Wednesday, at about 8 am, after realising no movement from their room, I became anxious and started to knock at their door. Despite beating the door loudly, nobody responded. I called my other colleagues who are also putting up in the same building. We broke the door bolt and entered the room but all of them had died while the gas heater was still on," a non-local said.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Kupwara Dr Bashir Ahmad, who was monitoring the postmortem process at the Sub District Hospital (SDH) Kralpora told Greater Kashmir that prima facie the deaths might have occurred due to asphyxiation.
“Anything concrete can be said about the deaths after the postmortem report. Apparently, it seems that all five died due to asphyxiation," he said.
The deceased have been identified as Majid Ansari, 35, son of Ahmad Hussain, his wife Sohana Khatoon, 30, their children Faizan Ansari, 4, Abu Dhar, 3, and a day-old infant.
Meanwhile, locals of Kralpora came forward to raise funds for sending the bodies of the Uttar Pradesh family home.
A local, who was accumulating funds, said that they raised around Rs 60,000 for sending all the bodies to their native place.
“We can’t bring them back, at least their last rights can be performed with dignity,” he said.
Other non-locals from Uttar Pradesh who are putting up in Kralpora thanked the locals for their sympathetic and humanistic gesture.
“We are really thankful to the locals, district administration, Police and SDH Kralpora administration for the support they provided us during this tough time,” Wasim, a non-local, told Greater Kashmir.
Meanwhile, Kupwara district administration has taken steps to shift the bodies to their native place Bijnoor in Uttar Pradesh.
