MANSEHRA: A man was burnt to death when his house caught fire in Mohallah Lughmani in Baffa town here in the early hours on Wednesday.

“The man stated to be the owner of the house was burnt to death in his room. We have retrieved his charred body from the rubble and shifted it to hospital for autopsy,” Amir Khadam, a Rescue 1122 official, told reporters.

The fire, which according to conflicting reports broke out either due to electricity short-circuiting or gas heater leakage, engulfed the double-storey house within no time, reducing household goods, including cash, gold ornaments and other valuables, to ashes.

Fire tenders and ambulances of Rescue 1122 and tehsil municipal administration, Baffa-Pakhal, immediately responded to calls made by a women living in the adjacent house, and put out the flames after hectic efforts of many hours.

The family of house owner, Mohammad Ijaz, had gone to his in-laws’ house, and he was alone there, sleeping in a room, Mr Khadam said, adding the charred body was shifted to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital.

The police, after registering an FIR, started investigation to ascertain the exact cause of the fire.

Meanwhile, unknown assailants killed a young boy, namely Mohammad Rizwan, in Kirpai area of Oghi.

The police said the boy was standing outside his cattle pen when assailants showed up there and opened indiscriminate fire on him, leaving him seriously injured. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

The police, after lodging FIR, started making efforts to arrest the culprits.

Separately, the people on Wednesday complained millers were selling low quality wheat flour to them under the government’s subsidised flour scheme.

“The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is providing subsidy to millers to supply wheat flour at subsidised rate, but the latter are selling inferior quality commodity to consumers,” Mohammad Ajmal, a local, told reporters.

He said the food department should check the quality of wheat flour being sold in Mansehra under the government’s relief package.

“The subsidy being provided by the government on wheat to millers is only meant to provide relief to people, but millers are fleecing consumers,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2022