The boys had begged their father to stay home and play

Sharjah: The two boys kept pleading with their father Javed Iftikhar Faisal to stay home and play with them and not go to work.

Hours later one of his sons had plunged to his death and the other was fighting for his life in hospital.

Faisal said: "I had to bribe them with chocolates so that I could leave home and go to work. If only I had stayed back ..."

Tragedy struck the family on Monday afternoon when their apartment opposite Sharjah Rotana Hotel caught fire.

His wife Zaibulnisa panicked and dropped her two boys - three-and-a-half-year old Areeb Faisal and two-year-old Haris - from the eighth floor of the building to save them from the fire.

No escape route

Areeb died on the spot. Haris suffered severe head injuries, internal bleeding and a broken leg. His condition is said to be critical in Al Qasimi hospital.

Zaibulnisa, who stood on the window sill, was rescued by a construction worker using a crane. She suffered burns on her hands and was released from hospital yesterday after treatment.

Al Heera police station is investigating the incident.

Faisal first got to hear the news that something was amiss at his home from a friend who called him. "He told me to go back to my flat as soon as possible. All that I was told was that my flat was on fire. On my way back home I learnt that my elder son was dead and the younger one was fighting for his life in Kuwaiti hospital.

"When I reached the hospital I saw my wife. She looked devastated. The look on her face said it all. My world came crumbling down in front of my eyes like a pack of cards," said Faisal.

His wife and younger son were later shifted to Al Qasimi hospital.

Faisal had set up a new business in Dubai and was processing visas for his family.

Zaibulnisa said she was trying to put her boys to sleep in the afternoon when the fire broke out in the electrical box located next to the main door of her flat.

She said she tried to escape through the main door but was unable to unlock it. "The only escape route was through the window. The children were already finding it hard to breathe because of the smoke. I opened the window and saw a lot of people. I even heard them asking me to throw the children down. I thought that someone would catch them," she said.

ASSISTANCE
Consulate to issue emergency passports

The repatriation of Areeb Faisal's body may be delayed because the family's passports were also burnt in the fire.

"We will issue them urgent passports and the body will be repatriated as soon as the family completes legal formalities," Mohammad Waseem, Consular Welfare at the Pakistan Consulate General in Dubai, said.

Waseem, who visited the family in hospital and also at Al Heera Police Station, told Gulf News that the consulate would bear the cost of the treatment of Haris, who is fighting for his life at Al Qasimi Hospital in Sharjah.

Waseem said the Consulate would also arrange for free air tickets for the repatriation of the body along with a family member on a Pakistan International Airline (PIA) flight as soon as the legal formalities are completed.

Raja Sarfaraz, president of the Pakistan Social Centre in Sharjah, said the centre would provide all possible moral and financial support to the family. "Both the parents are in deep shock. The family came from Islamabad recently and they were in the process of getting residence visas," he said.

- By Ashfaq Ahmed, Staff Reporter