Dust storm, downpour claim five lives in Faisalabad

Ag APP

FAISALABAD: Heavy dust storm followed by torrential rain claimed five lives and left 10 injured in roof and walls collapse incidents on Tuesday night.

The roofs of eight other houses were also collapsed in different localities of the district due to heavy dust storm and rain but with no casualty. Those killed in Umer Town included Bashir Ahmad, his wife Shehnaz Begum, Munir Ahmed while M Anwar of Khalsa College was also killed in roof collapse incidents. In another rain-related incident, a woman of Chak 630/GB Lundianwala, Bushra Bibi was killed when the wall of her house collapsed due to heavy dust storm. She died on the spot.

The 10 injured persons include Akbar and Yaseen of Muhammadabad, Shumaila of Chowk Nawaban Wala, Abdur Rehmand of Lahore Chowk (Jhang Road), Seher of Narwala, Adnan of Sukhan Haveli, M Afaq and Saadat Ali of Chaq-2 Ram Devali and PArveen of Rasool Pura (Samundri Road). The low-lying areas of Faisalabad, including Kachi Abadi near Sir Syed Town, Narwala Road, Yousaf Town, Elahi Abad, Rachna Town at Satiana Road, MuhammadAbad, NishatAbad and Mananwala were badly affected by rainwater. These urban localities were still inundated with rainwater till filing of this news, however, the Wasa staff was busy pumping out the water. Majority of the city areas had plunged into darkness on Tuesday night as heavy rain had badly disturbed the electricity distribution system of the Fesco. In some densely populated areas of the city, power supply was suspended till 3:00pm on Wednesday.

Woman held for killing husband: Peoples Colony police on Wednesday arrested a woman for killing her husband.The police said that FBR employee Muhammad Usman, son of Abdur Rasheed and a resident of Muhammadia Colony, was found dead under mysterious circumstances one day ago. Later, the police after registering a case started investigation and took Saba Manzoor, the wife of Usman, into custody on suspicion. During interrogation, Saba confessed to her crime and told the police that she wanted to marry Faisal Saqib but her husband was not ready to divorce her. Therefore, she along with Faisal gave poison to her husband, which caused his death. Leaves of Wasa employees cancelled: The leaves of the Wasa officers and staff have been cancelled in order to deal with any flood-related emergency during monsoon and rainy season. This was stated by a spokesman for the local administration here on Wednesday. He said that the officers of the departments concerned had also been directed to ensure all kinds of safety and precautionary arrangements to provide relief to the people of slums areas in case of emergency. He said that municipal services staff would remain active with necessary equipment and machinery for cleanliness of roads.

The entire machinery would be kept operational during the rainy days, he added. He told that flood fighting arrangements would also be ensured at the tehsil and town levels so that the people could be provided possible relief during flood like situation in torrential rains.