SARGODHA: A prayer leader was sentenced to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs1 million for raping a 7-year-old girl.

According to sources, in the Gulshan Mehboob, Chak 50 NB area of Sargodha city, 55-year-old Qari Yasin raped the girl in a side room of the mosque and fled.

The rape survivor was admitted to the hospital. Satellite Town police registered a case against Yasin under Section 376 of the Hudood Ordinance on the complaint of the rape survivor’s maternal uncle and arrested the accused.

Additional Sessions Judge Shahbaz Iqbal Tarar pronounced the verdict. The convict was shifted back to jail.

ELECTROCUTED: A 30-year-old assistant lineman died and a 40-year-old lineman was severely injured while installing a safety pipe on a power line in village Vijh of Sahiwal town on Sargodha-Jhang Road.

The incident occurred when an iron pipe they were working with got electrocuted. Assistant lineman Mujahid from the Sahiwal sub-division died on the spot, while lineman Ghulam Shabbir suffered severe burns and injuries. He was shifted to the hospital.

ACCIDENTS: Two people, including a woman, died, and six others were seriously injured in two road accidents involving motorcycles due to speeding.

In the first incident on Sargodha Khushab Road near Shahpur City bus stand, 55-year-old Zubaida Bibi from Quaidabad died. At the same time, her husband, Muhammad Munir, Muqaddas Adnan from Sundrall, Shazia Bibi, and her son, Adnan, sustained serious injuries in a collision between two motorcycles.

In a second incident near Gondalabad on Shahpur-Sahiwal Road, a speeding tractor-trolley struck a motorcycle from behind, killing 18-year-old Ali Shah from Mohabbatwala and injuring Zaki Shah, 15, from Shahpur, and Ali Raza, 18, from Sahiwal. The injured were shifted to the hospital. Police are investigating both cases.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2025