Shops burnt in Anarkali fire

LAHORE

Valuables worth millions of rupees were reduced to ashes in a fire that lasted for over nine hours in a plaza in Guddi Bazaar of Anarkali on Ganpat Road on Saturday.

Two persons suffered minor burns in the fire. They were provided with first aid. There were shops of decoration material and godowns of paper in the plaza. The material kept in dozens of shops in three-storey building was badly damaged. 

 According to the emergency call at Rescue 1122 control room, the fire broke out at around 02:02 am due to a short-circuit.

A fire station of Rescue 1122 is situated on a walking distance from the plaza. A fire vehicle reached the place within no time and started controlling the fire.

However, the fire spread to other shops and turned into a huge fire. On which, more teams of Rescue 1122 and Fire Brigade were called in. Over 25 fire tenders of Rescue 1122 took part in the operation.

A shopkeeper said that fire broke out when the electricity supply was restored after an hour of loadshedding at around 01:45am. The electric wires sparked and it was suspected that a flame might have gone inside some shop which caused the fire.

Huge flames of fire, thick clouds of smoke from burning shops and horns of ambulances and fire vehicles created panic in the locality.

The owners and traders of the plaza saw their ‘livelihood’ burning in front of their eyes.

It took over nine hours to extinguish the fire. The cooling process also took six to seven hours.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif took notice of the incident and directed the authorities to submit a report. CCPO Amin Wains, Deputy Commissioner Sameer Ahmad and others visited the site. 

In another incident of fire, valuables worth hundreds of thousands of rupees were burnt in a Lesco office at Mughalpura. Rescue teams put out the fire. No casualty  was reported in the incident.  

arrested: Shalimar police on Saturday claimed to have arrested an accused of murder of a PTI worker in August, 2016.

The suspect was hiding at a hideout on Bhogiwal Road. The Shalimar SHO said that they had also arrested two more accused, identified as Naveed and Yasir, in various cases who were staying with the suspect. 

PTI worker Mirza Muhammad Tanveer was shot dead by unidentified persons when he was returning after appearing in a court hearing of a murder case.