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Noted Sindhi poet Dr Akash Ansari died in Hyderabad on Saturday after suffering intense burn wounds in a fire that broke out in his room. He was 69 years old.

Allah Bux, popularly known as Akash Ansari, was asleep in his house located in Citizen Colony Saturday morning when a fire broke out in his room and family members tried to extinguish the fire. Staff of Rescue 1122 rushed to the house to battle the blaze.

According to Dilbar Halepoto, a Desert Emergency Response Team (DERT) team member of Rescue 1122, when he arrived at the house, he found the room completely filled with smoke. “News of the fire reached us at 8:47 am and our team reached there at around 8:55am,” he said. He added that a short circuit was the likely cause of the fire.

After some time trying to extinguish the flames, the team was able to figure out where Akash was lying, he said. Everything in the room, including the sofa set, bed and false ceiling, were destroyed.

“Our team found a heater that was lying very close to the head of Akash Ansari,” he said, adding that Ansari’s body was found near the entrance of the room, indicating that he may have attempted to leave the room. Halepoto said the deceased’s family members believed Ansari was in the bathroom. “The family members tried to control the fire themselves and were successful to some extent,” he said. Two other people — including Ansari’s son, have also been taken to Liaquat University Hospital’s city branch.

The house has been sealed by the police for proper investigation. A postmortem of the deceased was conducted by Dr Imran Khawaja on the police’s request. The body will now be taken to Badin for burial. SP Masood Iqbal has been tasked with the initial investigation by the Hyderabad senior superintendent of police.

Initially, Ansari’s son Latif, and his driver tried to enter his room after smelling smoke at around 8:30am but found the room had been locked from inside. “Smoke was billowing from the door of my father’s room,” he said. He told journalists that his father used to keep the room locked from inside and the key was lying with the driver in his car.

“When I smelled smoke I asked the driver to bring the keys immediately and we opened the door only to find more flames in one portion of the room and less on the spot where father was lying at the entrance,” he said. Latif said he tried to use a quilt to extinguish the fire but unable to do so. He said he received some injuries on his feet as well as he tried to enter the room.

“It was a rented place for our family,” he said. Latif said when he reached the house Friday night he found everything normal in the house and Ansari was having a chat with a friend. “I left the house to meet friends and returned to sleep but was awakened due to the smell of thick smoke,” he said.

According to Hyderabad SSP Dr Farrukh Ali, the site of tragedy was visited by police as well as Ansari’s son-in-law who is also a judicial magistrate. He said Latif was Ansari’s adopted son. He also said that the room was inspected by an electrician to see how it caught fire.

“Akash Ansari was on record having registered an FIR of fraud against his adopted son in 2024 as well,” the SSP said. He said they were investigating to see if there was any foul play. If there was any indication, they would register a case under Section 302 (murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code but if it is determined to be an accidental death, the police will be sending a report to the magistrate under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. SSP Ali said the police are still waiting on a preliminary autopsy report.

SSP Ali has formed a special team under the supervision of SP Headquarters Masood Iqbal. Other members of the team are DSP Inayat Qureshi, inspectors Ghulam Abbas Babbar, Tahir Khanzada and Bhitai Nagar police station SHO Asghar Tunio.

Ansari belongs to the coastal district of Badin and occasionally used to visit Hyderabad. He was a doctor by profession and a Sindhi poet of resistance. Jami Chandio, a noted Sindhi analyst and intellectual, was speechless to describe how he felt at losing Ansari.

“It is a personal loss. I had a 38-year-long association with Akash — we had been friends since 1987,” he said. said Akash was known for his poetry of resistance and romanticism and was famous for his poetry in the post-Sheikh Ayaz generation.

Akash was politically active with Rasool Bux Palijo’s Awami Tehreek. Jami said when the Awami Tehreek emerged with Awami National Party (ANP) Akash became its provincial general secretary with Hakim Ali Zardari, father of incumbent president Asif Zardari, as Sindh chapter president. But, Jami added, Akash then quit politics in the 90s and remained involved with poetry. “Akash also supervised a social welfare organisation in Badin as well,” he said.

Akash had been using poetry to condemn and extrajudicial killing of Dr Shahnawaz Kunbhar. He had presented his poetry at a recent gathering organised by the Sindhi Association of North America (SANA) at the Sindh Museum in Hyderabad.

Akash had also published two compilations of his poems. His work was sung by the iconic Abida Parveen as well as Mohammad Yousuf. According to Jami, his unpublished work was also pending publication. One of his poetry books was also translated into English.

Sindh Culture and Tourism Minister Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah expressed his sorrow over the incident. In a statement, he said, “The loss of Dr Aakash Ansari is a heartbreaking event, as he held a significant position in the world of literature and poetry.” Shah directed the police to thoroughly investigate the incident to determine the exact cause of the fire.

Ansari was widely admired for his invaluable contributions to literature and poetry. He also ran a YouTube channel.