SARGODHA: A double fire hit the central record room on district courts first late on Sunday night and later on Tuesday turning piles of record into ashes.

The fire on Sunday night was extinguished after several hours. The deputy commissioner supervised the fire extinguishing process.

The fire again broke out on Tuesday. In both fires, revenue any civil courts record maintained since 1856 was destroyed. The fire brigade of Rescue 1122 remained busy day and night in extinguishing the fire for three days.

On Wednesday, it was said that the fire had completely been extinguished.

Though the exact cause of the fire has yet to be ascertained, it was in the air that the first fire had broken out due to a short circuit but the eruption of the second fire is a mystery.

A revenue official said, on the condition of anonymity, the record room had deliberately been put on fire to destroy the revenue record to conceal some malpractices.

EID: Eidul Fitr was celebrated with religious fervour and traditional enthusiasm here.

On Monday, people braved hot and humid weather and visited public parks. Weather on second and third days of Eid was, however, rainy, so the people again rushed to recreational spots.

Police seemed helpless to control the crowd. At some places, the police thrashed the people in the presence of their families.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2017