Mother, daughter killed in firecracker blast in Aligarh

Lucknow: A woman and her daughter were killed and five other persons were injured in an explosion in a house stocked with firecrackers in Aligarh early on Friday, police said. The explosion took place at the house of Rafiq, a trader in fireworks at Jalali under Harduaganj police station. The deceased have been identified as Afsari, 35, and her daughter Taiyyaba 15. Rafiq is a licence holder of fire crackers. He had stored fire crackers illegally at his house, a senior police official at the DGP headquarters told IANS. SSP Aligarh and SP (rural) along with senior district officials visited the explosion site and oversaw the rescue operations. Two bodies were pulled out of the debris of the house, which caved in due to the impact of the explosion. Five injured have been rushed to the Aligarh medical college, where the condition of two is stated to be critical. This is the third such incident in the past few days in the run up to the festival of Diwali. Director General of Police (DGP) Sulkhan Singh has issued strict guidelines to police officials in districts to check stockpiling of fire crackers.