Birkby house fire: Family mark 20th anniversary of arson deaths

The family and supporters gathered at a memorial statue outside St John's Church in Birkby

A family which lost eight members in a fire after their home was petrol bombed has marked the 20th anniversary of the tragedy.

Five children and three adult members of the Chishti family died when the blaze tore through their terraced house in Birkby, Huddersfield, in May 2002.

Four men were convicted of their killings.

Shahid Mohammed, who fled the country, was found guilty of murder and jailed in 2019 for a minimum of 27 years.

Shaied Iqbal was found guilty of eight counts of murder while Shakiel Shazad and Nazar Hussain were convicted of manslaughter in a trial in 2003.

The family were asleep when petrol was poured through their letter box and petrol bombs thrown into their home as part of a dispute, the court heard at the time.

At the ceremony, which took place at a memorial statue outside St John's Church in Birkby, surviving family members were joined by friends, relatives and senior police officials.

West Yorkshire's Chief Constable John Robins paid tribute to the family's "dignity, courage and grace".

He said he wanted to attend the service to "pay our respects to those who lost their lives in an appalling and truly terrible crime".

(L-R) Rab Nawaz Khan, father of the five children who died in the fire in Huddersfield, with Ateeqa Nawaz, Rabia Batool, Nafeesa Aziz (the children’s mother) and Tayyaba Batool

The eight members of the family who died in the fire:

• Nafeesa Aziz, 35

• Her five young daughters - Tayyaba Batool, three, Rabiah Batool, 10, Ateeqa Nawaz, five, Aneesa Nawaz, two, and Najeeba Nawaz, six months

• Her brother - Mohammed Ateeq-ur-Rehman, 18

• Their mother - Zaib-un-Nisa, 54