Noted Sindhi poet Dr Akash Ansari died in Hyderabad on Saturday after suffering intense burn wounds in a fire that broke out in his room. He was 69 years old.
Allah Bux, popularly known as Akash Ansari, was asleep in his house located in Citizen Colony Saturday morning when a fire broke out in his room and family members tried to extinguish the fire. Staff of Rescue 1122 rushed to the house to battle the blaze.
According to Dilbar Halepoto, a Desert Emergency Response Team (DERT) team member of Rescue 1122, when he arrived at the house, he found the room completely filled with smoke. “News of the fire reached us at 8:47 am and our team reached there at around 8:55am,” he said. He added that a short circuit was the likely cause of the fire.
After some time trying to extinguish the flames, the team was able to figure out where Akash was lying, he said. Everything in the room, including the sofa set, bed and false ceiling, were destroyed.
“Our team found a heater that was lying very close to the head of Akash Ansari,” he said, adding that Ansari’s body was found near the entrance of the room, indicating that he may have attempted to leave the room. Halepoto said the deceased’s family members believed Ansari was in the bathroom. “The family members tried to control the fire themselves and were successful to some extent,” he said. Two other people — including Ansari’s son, have also been taken to Liaquat University Hospital’s city branch.
The house has been sealed by the police for proper investigation. A postmortem of the deceased was conducted by Dr Imran Khawaja on the police’s request. The body will now be taken to Badin for burial. SP Masood Iqbal has been tasked with the initial investigation by the Hyderabad senior superintendent of police.
Initially, Ansari’s son Latif, and his driver tried to enter his room after smelling smoke at around 8:30am but found the room had been locked from inside. “Smoke was billowing from the door of my father’s room,” he said. He told journalists that his father used to keep the room locked from inside and the key was lying with the driver in his car.
“When I smelled smoke I asked the driver to bring the keys immediately and we opened the door only to find more flames in one portion of the room and less on the spot where father was lying at the entrance,” he said. Latif said he tried to use a quilt to extinguish the fire but unable to do so. He said he received some injuries on his feet as well as he tried to enter the room.
“It was a rented place for our family,” he said. Latif said when he reached the house Friday night he found everything normal in the house and Ansari was having a chat with a friend. “I left the house to meet friends and returned to sleep but was awakened due to the smell of thick smoke,” he said.
