GUJRANWALA: Passengers of an express train smashed windowpanes of the office of the station master and the control room when the engine of a train stalled at Wazirabad on Friday.

Railway authorities sent a mechanic from Lahore who fixed the problem in an hour.

When Karachi-bound Pakistan Express 46-down reached Wazirabad junction at 11am from Rawalpindi, its engine failed to start, and local railway mechanics and the engine driver could not fix it.

Enraged passengers staged a demonstration and allegedly ransacked the office of the station master and the control room and smashed their windowpanes.

They shouted slogans against railway authorities and besieged the station master and other staff and criticised railway authorities for their poor performance.

The station master called the railway and district police while an SHO and DSP tried to disperse the angry passengers, but they refused to budge.

The station master informed senior officers in Lahore who sent a mechanic and the problem was rectified. The train left the station after a three-hour delay.

STARY KITE STRING: A boy was critically injured when a stray kite string slit his throat on Sialkot Road on Friday.

Ehtisham Ali, 19, was on his way to a market from Aroop Town on his bike. Near the education board office, a stray kite string slit his throat and he immediately fell on the ground.

Rescue 1122 service admitted him to DHQ Hospital where his condition was stated to be serious.

Citizens and civil society demanded the chief minister get the ban on kite flying implement strictly.

Former city police officer Raja Riffat had taken stern action against police officials and suspended more than five SHOs in a day from service for not containing kite flying.

Reportedly, shopkeepers were selling kites and chemical and metal strings that they had stored in their godowns in large quantities.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2014