Kushinagar, May 11 (IANS) Seven members of a family were burnt to death after a massive fire engulfed their entire house in Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar district.
The victims comprised four minor girls, their mother and grandparents.
While the woman and four of her daughters died on the spot, her eldest daughter (8) was rescued by the police.
The elderly couple, who were rushed to a local hospital in a critical condition, succumbed to their burn injuries during treatment.
The cause behind the fire is yet to be ascertained but locals said that the clay oven was not properly doused after preparing food.
Raging flames triggered panic among villagers, who informed firefighters.
According to locals, firefighters did not reach the spot in time.
However, Kushinagar District MagistrateRamesh Ranjan, along with SP Dhawal Jaiswal, rushed to the spot.
Senior police officials supervised the rescue operation.
Taking cognisance of the tragedy, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced Rs 4 lakh ex-gratia for each of the deceased, which will be given to the next of kin.
He directed the officials to provide all assistance to members of the family.
According to SP Dhawal Jaiswal, an inquiry had been initiated to identify the reason behind the fire.
Officials said that the father, Shohrat, is an auto driver.
He was in the market when the incident took place.
According to Shohrat, flames trapped his family members and prevented their way out.
Two persons injured in a road accident on Tuesday-- Sumit Gaur (21),and Mahboob Siddique (20) -- were declared dead and their bodies were kept at the hospital morgue overnight. When Sumit's relatives arrived at the mortuary to claim the body on Wednesday, they found multiple bite marks on his face. The rats had nibbled the nose, they alleged.
Raids on locations related to Popular Front of India (PFI) are being carried out in eight places in Uttar Pradesh. Mohammad Waseem, resident of Indira Nagar in Lucknow, has been taken away by the NIA sleuths, according to official sources. Waseem runs a tailoring shop and digital documents were recovered from his possession during the raid.
In a statement, the Chief Minister said the government will approach the Supreme Court against the arbitrary and anti-democratic decision of the Governor to cancel the permission of holding a special session of the Vidhan Sabha after giving permission for it. He said it is an unfortunate move and they will move to the apex court against this irrational decision.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Japan on September 27 to attend the state funeral of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday. He will also separately meet his counterpart, Fumio Kishida during the visit, it said.
The village leaders have asked the parents of Dalit boy Ramesh and Shobha not to enter village until they pay the fine amount. Miscreants are also making threatening calls to the boy's mother.
The accused Shahabaz alias Chhote and Uved (brother of Nadeem) were arrested by the local police on July 21, however, Nadeem went absconding. Nadeem alias Sher Khan, is a bad character of Jyoti Nagar police station.
