BAHAWALPUR: A young teacher was killed when the roof of the headmaster’s room at the government primary school of Chak 6/BC collapsed following an explosion on Thursday.

Police and Rescue 1122 sources said classes were in progress at the Government Elementary School, Chak 6/BC, when there was an explosion in the headmaster’s office. The intensity of the mysterious explosion triggered roof collapse and soon a fire erupted resulting in injuries to teacher Sardar Muhammad, 25.

A resident of Mohajir Colony, Sardar happened to be in the office and suffered burns. A team of Abbasnagar police and the rescue officials reached there and shifted the teacher to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH) where he expired despite efforts by doctors to give him first aid at the emergency ward.

BVH Emergency Ward Director Dr Aamir Bokhari told Dawn that Muhammad Sardar was brought with about 90pc burns and a team of doctors tried its best to resuscitate him but to no avail.

According to eyewitnesses, the explosion shook the building that developed cracks. The headmaster was away at the time of the incident.

District Emergency Officer Dr Muhammad Asif Channar also inspected the scene of the blast and the BVH emergency ward where the teacher expired. Speaking to Dawn, he claimed that he had found no suspicious or unusual object in the headmaster’s office. He, however, said the room had petrol smell after the incident.

He said police would investigate the case and come up with the possible cause of the explosion and the fire.

Police sources remained tight-lipped and said they could not find anything suspicious initially.

Imran Ahmed, PRO to DPO, said a police forensic team was sent to the scene and collected the samples but could not ascertain the cause of the blast.

Abbasnagar SHO Aslam Baloch corroborated that there was petrol smell in the office after the tragic incident. He said a team of the civil defence also collected samples for forensic test the results of which were expected within a few days. He said headmaster Arif Mukhtar denied having any inflammable material in his office.

He said police had yet to register a case because no complainant had turned up.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2019