SWABI: A shop was gutted in the district headquarters here on Saturday, Rescue 1122 officials said.

The traders informed the rescue service soon after the shop caught fire. The firefighters reached the spot soon afterwards and started dousing the blaze with the help of traders.

The gutted shop was situated near the Swabi Bridge on the Swabi-Mardan Road, one of the busy areas in the district headquarters.

The firefighters managed to prevent the blaze from spreading to other shops, especially a CNG filling station close by.

The officials said they had yet to know what caused the fire.

Mohammad Ali, president of Anjuman-i-Dokandaran, told Dawn that the fire had inflicted heavy losses on the owner as nothing remained in the shop.

Separately, the police arrested seven gamblers from Marghuz area on Saturday.

SHO Zaida Shafiullah told Dawn that the police raided the gambling den on a tip-off.

The arrested gamblers included Wajahat Khan, Mohammad Furqan, Mohammad Ibrahim, Raza Mohammad, Numan Khan, Hanif Khan and Taj Khan.

The police seized Rs18,000 bet money and a pistol from them. An FIR was registered against them.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2021