FAISALABAD: Infuriated people torched a bus of a garment factory on Thursday, when a teenager died after being hit by the vehicle near the Steam Power Station on Sheikhupura Road, in Millat Town police precincts.

According to eyewitnesses, 16-year-old Ali Hassan of Chak 204-GB was crossing the road when the rashly-driven bus hit him.

The boy was critically injured and died on the spot. After the incident, locals and passersby caught the bus driver, later identified as Abid Mahmood of Garden Mohallah, Nishatabad, and were about to thrash him when police reached there and took him in custody.

Enraged locals and passersby set the bus ablaze and staged a protest demonstration on the road, throwing traffic out of gear for more than one hour. After the protest, the agitators dispersed.

The police handed over the body to the boy’s family.

As no ambulance was available, the body had to be shifted to the house of the deceased on a motorcycle-rickshaw.

No case has so far been instituted against the driver.

On Jan 9 last, locals had set a bus of the same factory ablaze near Chak 61-GB, Mohran, Jaranwala, after it hit a motorcycle and injured three siblings -- Qasim, 18, Saad, 15 and Samia,12.

Police had registered a case under sections 279 and 337-G on the complaint of Mehmood Ahmed, father of the injured siblings.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2018