TIMERGARA: Five labourers, two brothers among them, were suffocated when a bal(ery caught fire at Khall bazaar here in the wee hours of Sunday, residents and police said.

Local people said the ñre erupted due to electric short-circuit and engulfed the shop and its adjacent stock room where five workers were sleeping. They saidthat soon after the Hre broke out, the policemen on duty in the bazaar raised alarm by firing shots to inform the people.

Hearing gunshots, the local people came out of their homes and rushed to the bakery to rescue the workers trapped inside. However, rising flames prevented them from going inside the stock room to rescue the trapped workers.

Residents said the trapped workers shouted for help for some time but later their cries faded out. Afterhectic efforts, the local people brought the Hre under control and retrieved the bodies of the workers.

They shifted the dead to the DHQ hospital, Timergara, where doctors said the five men had suffocated.

Their bodies were later dispatched to their native Bagh district of Azad Kashmir.

Meanwhile, the Anjuman-iTajaran, Khall Bazaar, on Sunday observed shutter-down strike to show sympathy and solidarity with the aggrieved families. The localresidents also offered funeral prayers in absentia.

The traders` body demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and federal governments to announce special package for families of the deceased workers.

Talking to journalists, president of Anjuman-i-Tajaran, Timergara, Anwaruddin said the labourers were here to earn livelihood for their families. He asked the government to adequately compensate the bereaved families.