13 Pakistanis, including eight children, killed in Jordan house fire

AMMAN: Thirteen Pakistanis including eight children died on Monday when a blaze tore through their corrugated metal home in a rural area of western Jordan, authorities said.

Rescue services said “13 people died and three others were injured when fire broke out in a corrugated metal house” on a farm in South Shona, around 50km west of Amman.

The makeshift building was home to two Pakistani families.

Fire service spokesman Iyad al-Omari told state television channel Al-Mamlaka that eight children, four women and a man had died in the blaze at around 2:00 am local time, which was likely caused by an electrical fault. Jordan is home to thousands of Pakistanis, many of them agricultural labourers.

PAK FOREIGN MINISTER MEETS LANKA PREZ

COLOMBO: Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi called on Sri Lanka’s newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday and discussed issues including bilateral trade, investment and people to people contacts.

Pakistan foreign office said Qureshi handed over a letter from President Arif Alvi to Gotabaya and invited him to visit Islamabad. “Bilateral issues, trade, investment and people to people contacts discussed. FM handed over a letter from the President to President of Sri Lanka and invited him to visit Pakistan at his earliest convenience,” Pakistan foreign office spokesperson Muhammad Faisal said in a tweet. Qureshi held talks with his Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Gunawardena and apprised him about the “dire situation” in Kashmir.