A day after a hotel collapse in Jhelum — triggered by a gas explosion — claimed seven lives, the Punjab police on Monday registered a first information report (FIR) against the hotel owner and another for running an “illegal” liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder shop in the basement of the building.
The three-storey private hotel located on the Grand Trunk Road near Jhelum collapsed yesterday, trapping a number of people underneath the rubble.
After a day-long rescue operation, 10 people were retrieved alive from the debris and transferred to hospitals.
Earlier today, an FIR was lodged at Jhelum’s Kala Gujran police station by Sub-inspector (SI) Ashar Saleem.
The complaint, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, invokes sections 337H (punishment for hurt by rash or negligent act), 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter), 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance) and 109 (punishment of abetment if the Act abetted committed In consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
According to SI Saleem, he was on routine duty along with other officers in the area when they heard an explosion nearby at 9:45am on Sunday. “When we reached the site, the Mian Sikander Hotel had collapsed and a number of people stuck under the rubble could be heard calling for help.”
The complainant said Rescue 1122 teams immediately arrived at the site and a rescue operation was launched.
“We found out that a man, identified as Qaiser Mehmood, was running an illegal gas cylinder refill shop in the basement of the hotel,” the officer said in the FIR, claiming that the explosion occurred when one of the gas cylinders exploded.
The complaint said a number of lives were lost due to Qaiser’s negligence and added that the owner of the hotel, Mian Sikandar, also committed a crime by allowing the former to run the cylinder shop in the basement.
He further stated that deaths and injuries were possible, adding that the police had confiscated two cylinders from the site as evidence and handed them over to the bomb disposal squad in Rawalpindi for further investigation.
It must be noted that Qaiser, who has been nominated in the FIR, was also among those who died in the explosion and subsequent building collapse.
Sunday’s blast was the second such notable incident in as many days caused by the explosion of a gas cylinder.
On Saturday, seven passengers were burnt alive and 14 sustained injuries when a van caught fire after its gas cylinder exploded near Bhalwal Commerce College in Punjab’s Sargodha district.
According to police, an overloaded Hiace van was going from Bhalwal to Kot Momin, when the gas cylinder installed in it exploded near Bhalwal Commerce College.
Last month, at least five, including three children, were killed and seven others were injured in three separate gas cylinder explosions across the country.
