SWABI/HARIPUR: Fire erupted in Ajmer mountain of Topi tehsil here on Tuesday three days after it was put out.

The extent of the damage to forests by the fire wasn’t immediately known.

The mountain is located near the under construction Women University Swabi and other public sector educational institutions.

Tehsil nazim Sohail Yousafzai told Dawn that firefighters and tehsil administration’s officials had been sent to the mountain to extinguish fire.

“The fire will be controlled soon,” he said.

The administration said as the district didn’t have Rescue 1122 service, rescuers had been called in from nearby Mardan and Nowshera districts.

Also in the day, the rain extinguished a wildfire, which had broke out in the Makhniyal Forest Range of Haripur four days ago.

The fire, which began in Nirota village and engulfed a vast area afterward, burned down hundreds of pine trees due to the slow response on part of the ill-equipped district administration and forest department.

Sub-divisional forest officer of Makhniyal range Mohammad Asif confirmed the extinguishing of the fire and said the fire affected foreland in Komal Gali, Pakshahi and Makhniyal villages and not those in 15 villages as claimed by the district administration.

He also insisted that the fire didn’t damage mature trees and that the forest department put out the fire completely by 6pm on Monday.

Mr Asif said ‘miscreants’ from Pakshahi village had set fire to dry grass before it engulfed the forest.

He said the culprits had been arrested after the police registered a criminal case against them, while search for their accomplices was under way.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2019