Indian lovers die together in Gelephu house fire
M B Subba GELEPHU.
Two Indian lovers died in a major fire in the attic of a building yesterday midnight in the heart of Gelephu town.
Monika Ali, 40, from Bagaigoan, Assam and Nanka, 22, from Bighar were complete charred and they were hardly recognisable. “They were just skeletons when police brought out their bodies out of the fire,” said an eyewitness. The dead bodies were taken to Gelephu hospital and later handed over to their relatives.
Monika Ali and her two sons had been working in different hotels in Gelephu as helpers for about five years, according to family sources. The lady, a divorcee, had a relationship with Nanka for quite sometime, according to his associates. However, it is not known whether they had any differences at any time.
Nanka, a tailor, was unmarried and actually resided in Dadghari, a neighboring Indian town. He worked as day workers in Gelephu, but used to visit Monica frequently. And yesterday he had gone to sleep with his girlfriend in the attic, sources said.
“Despite my repeated warning to Nanka not to come, he used to frequently spend nights here,” said the building owner Sonam Lhamo. Four people, including Monika Ali, had been occupying the attic.
Some associates of the man and woman believe that the Muslim lovers might have burnt themselves by sprinkling kerosene in their room.
But did they really kill themselves, as many residents believe? Or did the fire occur due to an electrical short circuit? Police are investigating the case.
Residents and police carried water from nearby households and hotels to put out the blaze in the dead of the night. Eyewitnesses believe that the fire started from the inner rooms of the attic and by the time residents noticed it, it was an inferno.
Police did their best to douse the fire, but they were very poorly equipped. The latest fire, which broke out at midnight, took almost two hours to put out, as there was no fire brigade. “The fire could have been put out sooner had there been water with the police,” said Sonam Lhamo.
Two other occupants of the attic lost all their belongings. The place has been completely gutted.
Apart from the tragic end to their love story, a critical issue has arisen out of the mishap. Is our system prepared to face such an accident, residents ask?
This was the third incident of fire in the town in less than a year’s time. All of them occurred in attics, that too in the heart of the town.
Earlier, in a similar incident police hired a tanker to fetch water to put out the fire but the tanker repeatedly ran out of water and had to rush back to the river – which is quite far ‑to refill.
Are the house owners entitled to insurance for the loss of the attic? Sonam Lhamo is not sure. “I don’t know whether I will get insurance coverage for the loss I have suffered,” she said.
Indian workers are supposed to reside outside Gelephu after the immigration office in Gelephu started a clampdown on them earlier this year. But the evidence is clear now: many are still residing in Gelephu.
From Bhutan Today
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