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| January 28, 2008 | Monday | Muharram 18, 1429 |
KARACHI: Three coaches set ablaze after accident
KARACHI, Jan 27: Three passenger coaches were set alight by enraged people in North Nazimabad following a road accident in which a couple sustained injuries at Sakhi Hasan on Sunday evening, police said.
According to the police, a couple on a motorcycle were knocked down by a coach (Khan Coach) close to the Sakhi Hasan roundabout in front of the Haroon Shopping Centre on the main North Nazimabad road.
The woman suffered an injury in her toe and back while the husband received minor injuries. Following the incident, enraged youths of the area torched the vehicle involved in the accident and simultaneously also set alight other two coaches which were coming behind, SPO North Nazimabad DSP Rasheed Khan said.
Police were clueless as to how, in such a short span of time, three vehicles were set alight considering the fact that the accident was not a fatal one.
The routes of the other two coaches which were set on fire could not be known immediately as their route plates had been destroyed. We are waiting for the owners to come forward. They would be able to identify the routes, the DSP added.
The couple were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where they were provided treatment for their injuries.
When police reached the spot the vehicles were already up in flames. The fire brigade was also called but there was little they could do as the vehicles had suffered extensive damage by the time they got there. However, the fire tenders doused the fire and returned to their respective station.
The incident caused a traffic jam on the main North Nazimabad road. Following the incident, area police were put on alert by the high-ups.
An FIR of the incident was awaited till the filing of this report, but a senior police official said that two FIRs one pertaining to the accident would be registered while the second one pertaining to arson of the vehicles may be lodged on the complaint of the owners.
Police, quoting eyewitnesses, said that the youths who set the three vehicles on fire were riding motorcycles and quickly carried out the arson, forcing the commuters out before setting the vehicles ablaze.
The main North Nazimabad road has witnessed many similar and more fatal accidents, more or less on the same spot and at Hayderi.
A fire broke out at the Bilqius Edhi home in Clifton and another in the Taj Complex on M.A. Jinnah Road on Sunday.A spokesman for the fire department said that fire had broken out in the basement of the Edhi home in Clifton.
Apparently, clothes dumped in the basement caught fire, which was contained and controlled by the firemen. No casualty was reported.
The Clifton Edhi centre for women has a capacity for 300 women; however, at the time of the fire, around 200 women and girls were present on the premises. They were shifted to different Edhi centres of the city.
Apparently, an electrical short-circuit was the probable cause of the fire, a spokesman for the fire department said.
A little later, an auto-workshop located beneath Taj Complex in Lines Area caught fire. The smoke caused by the fire billowed into the multi-story hospital creating panic in the building.
Terrified people had climbed on to the roof of the building fearing that the exit had been blocked by the fire. However, they were later rescued by the firemen who controlled the blaze. No casualty was reported in the incident, a fire department spokesman said.
Criminal arrested
Police on Sunday arrested a man whom they described as a close aid of Rehman Dakait in an alleged encounter in the Chakiwara area of Lyari.
Police said Amjad alias Grenade was wanted in over 40 cases pertaining to murder, making threats for kidnapping for ransom and several dozen other cases pertaining to various crimes.
Amjad had recently killed Younus Turbati in the Lyari area, police said. Police recovered a Mauser and a TT pistol from his possession.
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