RAWALPINDI: Wasim Khalid is beside himself after the unexpected death of his three minor children, whose lives came to an abrupt end in a tragic episode on Saturday.

`My children died while playing inside the house, and I found their bodies in a flour trunk,` Mr Khalid told Dawn with tears rolling down his eyes. The children were laid to rest in their native town, Chakwal, on Sunday.

`Our world has gone bleak,` said Mr Khalid, who works as a bike rider for a ride-hailing company. Along with his wife Iqra Ramzan and three children, he lived ontheñrstnoorofahousein Shah Khalid Colony. On the ground floor lived his in-law Mohammad Ahsan along with his family.

It was a normal day. Wasim Khalid lef t his house at 10am on Saturday for work, while his wife Iqra Ramzan, whoworks at `Save Mart` in PWD left for her job at 1pm, leaving the three children behind. For safety reasons, they had loclced the main gate of their house.

As per his usual routine, Mr Khalid returned home at about 6pm. As he wall(ed inside after unlocking the main door, he found it strange that the children did not come running to hug him; it was complete silence in the house.

He started looking for them, frantically. `When I was unable to find my children, I contacted my brotherin-law Ahsan to inquire about them,` Wasim said in a report with the police. But, his brother-in-law had no clue, but he joined him in the search.

`Subsequently, I rushed back to my house and started searching for my children in the house. I called them one by one but got no response.

Ahsan was also accompanying me,` he said.

`As we looked inside thefiour trunk, the three children were lying inside the trunk, dead.` A doctor, who was called by the family, also pronounced them dead.

The bodies were moved to the Benazir Bhutto Hospital by the police and Rescue 1122 for medico-legal formalities, but the father refused the autopsy since `it was an accidental death` Mr Khalid told Dawn his wife was in a state of shock after she had learned about the death of her children and arrived at the hospital to see their bodies. Seven-year-old Faryia Wasim was a kindergarten student, while her younger sister Saira Wasim was in nursery class. The youngest Zohan Wasim was over two years old.

On the other hand, the Airport police have registered a report on the complaint of Wasim Khalid, as he said that `he does not want to initiate any legal proceedings because he had no suspicions about anybody regarding the death of his children`