April 9, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 10, 1427

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LAHORE, April 8: Fourteen offices, mostly of insurance companies, were reduced to ashes when the third floor of the Al-Falah Building caught fire here on Saturday. According to eyewitnesses, the fire was caused by the explosion of a gas cylinder being used by a tea-stall owner on the same floor.

Employees of the offices tried to put out the blaze by using fire-extinguishers but they could not do so. Soon the fire engulfed the whole floor by the time the fire-brigade had come there.

Over a dozen people were trapped in the third and fifth floors. “I sent an SOS to my son by cell phone who reached the spot before the fire brigade,” says elderly Hassan. He said the fire engulfed the whole floor within no time as they (trapped people) could not manage to vacate.

The fire fighters took an hour to break into the building through windows and put out the flames besides rescuing the trapped people —- 12 on the fifth floor and two on the third.

The loss has yet to be ascertained.

The City District Government Lahore claimed it was a successful rescue operation which took 42 minutes as the rescuers were equipped with gas masks. Tankers of Wasa and solid waste management were used to re-fill fire-extinguishers on the spot instead of taking them to hydrants.

MURDERED: Four people were killed in as many incidents in the city on Saturday.

One Iqbal was shot dead when two parties exchanged fire in Manga Mandi. Iqbal and Babu Shuja groups had an old enmity over a piece of land. Allah Ditta of the Babu Shuja group was also injured in the crossfire.

Shahzad, father of three, was shot dead over a money dispute in Misri Shah.

The victim had paid a certain amount to Riaz, owner of a furniture showroom, for the purchase of some wooden items. The accused neither provided the articles nor returned the amount.

After an exchange of hot words on Saturday, Riaz gunned down Shahzad and fled.

In Iqbal Town, the body of a 35-year-old man was recovered from a drain. The victim, unidentified so far, had been strangled.

The body of another unidentified youth, 25, was recovered from Nishtar Colony drain. There were torture marks on head and other parts of the body.

Cases have been registered against the accused.