KASUR, Jan 21: Protesters set fire to a minivan after it crushed two students to death on Depalpur Road near Khudian on Saturday.

The protesters from Khudian town forced traders and offices to shut down when they staged a demonstration and blocked the road by burning tyres. They threw the traffic out of gear for about six hours and raised slogans against the police.

Muhammad Irfan (14), a student of 8th class, and Mansoor Ahmed (13), a student of 7th class, were on their way to Government High School, Khudian from Sahbiniwala village by a motorcycle when they had an accident with a locally manufactured minivan (peter engine van) near Khudian Stop. As a result, Ahmed was killed at the sceneand Irfan was injured. Rescue 1122 staff took Irfan to the district headquarters hospital in a critical condition, but he died minutes after reaching the health facility.

When villagers and school students learnt about the incident, they gathered on Depalpur Road and staged a protest demonstration. They pelted Khudian Police Station with stones and burnt the minivan. Later, they forced shopkeepers in Khudian Bazaar and on Depalpur Road as well as private and public offices to shut down.

Former parliamentary secretary Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan and former tehsil nazim Malik Rasheed Ahmed also joined the protesters.

Separately, a truck crushed a senior citizen to death near Mandi Usmanwala.The locals stopped the truck and caught the driver, Danish. They thrashed him before handing him over to police.

ROBBERIES: A gang of 16 robbers deprived three families of gold, cash and other valuables worth more than Rs1 million in Bharwal village in Pattoki police precincts late on Friday night.

The robbers barged in the house of Rozdar Khan and later adjoining houses of Abdul Majeed Khan and Sarab Khan and held the families hostage.

They took away 17 tola gold ornaments, Rs60,000 and other valuables from the three houses.

In a another incident in the same village, three masked robbers deprived motorcyclist Maqbool Ahmed of Rs20,000 and his cell phone on Saturday.