BAHAWALPUR: A large quantity of wheat worth hundreds of thousands of rupees was gutted by lightning at a village near Yazman, about 40km from here, on Friday night.

According to District Emergency Officer Baqir Ali, over 300 maunds of threshed wheat belonging to a farmer, Mahboob Ahmed, was lying in his fields at 25/DB village near Shahiwala in Yazman tehsil, when the area was hit by rain, thunderstorm and lightning.

According to Ahmed, during the thunderstorm, a pile of wheat was struck by a bolt of lightning and caught fire that soon engulfed the whole stock.

Mr Ali said on being informed of the blaze, the Rescue 1122 firefighters reached the scene and extinguished the fire after an hour-long efforts.

The farmer said that as per initial estimates, over 200 hundred maunds of wheat were gutted in the blaze, adding there was no loss of life or injury was caused.

NABBED: A employee of the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) was allegedly caught by locals while stealing sugar bags from Qaimpur USC outlet near Hasilpur, about 90kms from here on Friday night.

According to locals, USC store-keeper Shehzad was allegedly nabbed with two sacks full of eighty packs of one kilogram sugar he was carrying on his motorcycle.

They said a large number of people gathered at the scene and handed him over to police with the stolen sugar.

An official said a complaint against the store-keeper had also been lodged with USC Regional Manager Nayyar Abbas who served him a show-cause notice after suspending him from service.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2021