BAHAWALPUR: Four persons, including a woman and her minor daughter, suffered burns in two different fire incidents involving gas cylinders in Lodhran and Bahawalpur during the last 24 hours.

In the first incident, a housewife, Shazia (30) and her three-year-old daughter Noor Fatima suffered serious burns when a gas cylinder caught fire in the kitchen of their house at Basti Haroon near Chamb Mor in Lodhran district on Tuesday night.

According to Lodhran Rescue 1122 media coordinator, the incident occurred when the woman lit a matchstick in the kitchen where gas had accumulated due to a cylinder-mounted stove left turned on.

As a result, the mother and her minor daughter suffered serious burns and were shifted to the DHQ hospital for treatment.

In the second incident occurring in Bahawalpur’s Khokha Market near the general bus stand, two men suffered burns when a fire erupted in a shop during gas decanting process.

Rescue 1122 firefighters, reaching the spot on an emergency call, controlled the blaze in a half-an-hour-long operation. The two men -- Khizer Hayat (50) andJani (25) – who were injured seriously in the incident, were rushed to Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH), Bahawalpur.

RAPE BID: Gaggo Mandi police in Vehari district booked a security guard of a Divisional Public School for attempting to rape a female teacher at gunpoint, taking her objectionable pictures, and extorting cash and gold jewellery worth over Rs2.5 million from her.

According to district police spokesperson, though the incident occurred about three months ago, the complainant, ‘AH’ recently reported it to the Gaggo Mandi police, which registered the FIR No 656/26 against the suspect under sections 376, 511 and 292 of the PPC.

In her FIR, the victim stated that she was appointed as a junior teacher in the Divisional Public School (DPS) at Gaggo Mandion April 28, 2025.

According to her, a school security guard, Imran Rasool, met her and claimed that he had contacts with some influential persons and could get her appointed as a senior teacher in BS-17 in the school.

She said that she fell in the trap, and started giving money to the guard. She said that she paid a total Rs671,000 in cash and gold jewellery worth Rs1890,000 to the suspect, but he did not arrange a better job for her.

The complainant said that about three months ago, the suspect called her to school on a holiday on the pretext of returning her jewellery. She alleged that when she reached there, the suspectled her to a nearby building, where he attempted to rape her at gunpoint and took her objectionable pictures with his mobile phone.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2026