Addict held as parked train coach catches fire
LAHORE: One of the faulty coaches of a train’s rake parked at a platform of Lahore Railway Station caught fire on Monday, panicking the railway officials who rushed to the spot to deal with the situation.
According to reports, a rake of faulty passenger coaches was parked at Platform No 7-A at the Lahore station. All of a sudden, a fire erupted in an economy class coach – No 12193.
On being informed of the situation, railway officials rushed to the spot and also called Rescue 1122 for help in extinguishing the fire.
According to a Pakistan Railway spokesperson, a suspect was taken into custody after the fire incident in an out-of-service economy-class coach parked at Platform No.7-A.
He says the suspect was apprehended by railway police with the assistance of railway staff, while a case has been registered at the Railway Police Station, Lahore.
According to him, the fire erupted in the coach at around 12:40pm. On being called, a Rescue 1122 firefighting team responded promptly and brought the blaze under control by 1:20pm, he says, adding that no casualty was reported in the incident.
He says that further investigations into the incident are underway amid legal proceedings initiated against the arrested suspect.
The incident did not disrupt train operations, the spokesperson says, adding that all trains continued running according to their schedules.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the railways police told Dawn that an FIR (No 277/26) of the incident has been
registered under sections 436 and 427 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
According to the FIR, the police captured the suspect, Abu Bakar, a resident of Islamia Park, Jinnah Road, Gujranwala, as soon as he came out of the coach where the fire had erupted.
During initial investigation, the suspect told the police that he was a drug addict and entered the coach to use drugs.
During search, the police recovered a lighter and some cigarettes from the suspect, who confessed to have thrown a burning butt on a seat of the coach, resulting in the fire.
Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2026
