KASUR: The Pattoki police on Tuesday registered a case against 40 people, 18 of them nominated, in a case of attack and arson in a market of Gahlan Pathak on Multan Road.

Police registered two cases and arrested four people including three of one group.

Three people suffered critical injuries and eight shops and a house were gutted after relatives of a customer allegedly set a shop on fire following a dispute.

The first FIR was lodged against 35 suspects including 15 nominated on the complaint of Asghar Ali of Chak 22 Rukanpura under various sections including section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act, and sections 454, 380, 440, 354, 147 and 149 of PPC.

Complainant Ali said he, along with his brothers Sharafat and Basharat, was present at his building material shop when Haji Ashiq and his accomplices (15 nominated and 20 unidentified) came to his shop and held them at gunpoint. Later, as stated in the FIR, the suspects asked them to move ahead of them to the village where they (the suspects) would teach them a lesson for short measuring crushed stone.

The complainant said that while the suspects were manhandling them, the pistol of Basharat (brother of the complainant) went off, leaving Babar injured.

Infuriated by the injury of Babar, the suspects set fire to eight shops including that of the complainant and others in the market causing of loss of over Rs20 million. The complainant also got stated in the FIR that the suspects stormed their houses, ransacked valuables and also tortured inmates including women.

The other FIR had been lodged on the complaint of Haji Muhammad Ashiq against five people including three nominated under sections 324, 148 and 149 of PPC.

According to the complainant, Babar along with his brother Imran went to the shop of Basharat where they had an exchange of arguments over short measuring crushed stone. Later, as stated in the FIR, Asghar, Sharafat, Basharat and two unidentified men shot at and injured Babar who suffered serious injuries and was taken to the THQ hospital from where he was referred to Lahore in a critical condition.

Police claimed to have arrested four people including three in Asghar Ali case and one in Muhammad Ashiq case.

ACCIDENT: A student died after a vehicle hit his motorbike on Multan Road on Tuesday.

Asif Javed, a student of first year, was on his way back home on Mega Road by his motorcycle. A trailer hit the bike and he died on way to hospital.

The driver escaped while police impounded the vehicle and shifted the body of the student to the Pattoki THQ hospital for autopsy.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2019