TOBA TEK SINGH: All 46 passengers, a driver, and a conductor of a bus remained safe after a running bus caught fire due to a short circuit on the Faisalabad motorway (M-4) near the Sahianwala interchange on Sunday.

The bus was completely burnt while the motorway police personnel rescued the passengers. Most of the luggage on the bus, bound from Islamabad to Vehari, was also saved.

The police arranged transport for the passengers. A Faisalabad Rescue 1122 spokesperson said that three fire tenders from Faisalabad and two from Shahkot (Sheikhupura) extinguished the fire.

DIES: A teenage boy died and three others were injured after two of several motorcycles from a group of youths, who were on a picnic tour from Faisalabad to Tandlianwala, fell on the road after colliding with a trailer near Chowk Burhan on Satiana Road on Sunday.

Rescue 1222 said the deceased was identified as Hasan Afzaal and injured as Husnain Afzaal, 12, Amin, 17, and Haider, 19. They were shifted to Toba Tek Singh DHQ Hospital.

Also, in Faisalabad, eight passengers were seriously wounded in a head-on collision between two buses near Faisal Garden on Sheikhupura Road. They were shifted to DHQ and Allied hospitals.

They were identified as Shagufta Perveen, 62; her daughter Asma Batool, 40; Usama, 25; Irfan, 30; Samiullah, 63; Akhtari Bibi, 60; Zunaira, 36; and Najeebullah, 70.

PROTEST: The Textile Power Loom Garment Workers Union staged a protest on Sunday at Millat Chowk, Faisalabad, against the increase in electricity and gas tariffs and in the prices of medicines and daily use items.

Scores of people working in hosiery units participated. Aslam Meraj, Hafsa, Muhammad Ali Butt, Shahzad Mughal and Abdul Sattar spoke.

They demanded that medicines should be provided free of charge in all indoor and outdoor departments of government hospitals, including emergency medicine. They claimed that the poor working class had been forced to commit suicide due to the cruel increase in electricity bills. They said the rulers had promised before the election that they would reduce inflation and provide free electricity up to 300 units but have betrayed this promise. They warned that if their demands were not met, they would be forced to take to the streets every day.

SCUFFLE: Gojra Sadar police scuffled with scores of villagers when they refused to hand over a dacoit, caught by them, on Samundri Road near Gogera Branch Canal’s Bahram Wala Bridge on Sunday.

The police arrested Akbar Ali, lumberdar of Chak 178 GB, and five other villagers.

Reports said that two robbers were looting people when scores of villagers gathered and besieged the outlaws. One robber was caught, while the other hid in a roadside sugarcane field, continuing to fire shots.

In the meantime, police arrived and arrested the second robber. When the policemen asked the villagers to hand over the first robber, they refused and demanded the presence of the district police officer, alleging that police often set robbers free after receiving bribes.

This resulted in a scuffle, and the police arrested six villagers before succeeding in snatching the robber from them. Sources identified the arrested robbers as Sajid Jat and Rizwan Jat of Faisalabad Chak 73 RB, Khurrianwala.

ACCIDENT: A motorcyclist died after his motorcycle was hit by a car on Samundri Road near Adda of Chak 45 GB, Gojra, on Sunday.

He was shifted to the Gojra THQ Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. He was identified as Faisal Kamboh of Imran Park, Gojra.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2024