MULTAN: A factory extracting furnace oil, gas, carbon and steel wires from used tyres was sealed on Saturday in Billiwala Adda after a team of the district administration raided there on the complaints of the area people.

Reports said District Coordination Officer Zahid Saleem Gondal received complaints from residents that they were facing multiple issues due to the burning of used tyres in the factory.

They said the burning of tyres was causing negative environmental and health impacts and the people were suffering from lungs and respiratory related diseases.

On DCO’s direction, a team led by Assistant Commissioner Shakeel Ahmad Bhatti, AC Ishfaqullah Khan and Sher Shah Town TMO Malik Iqbal Farid raided the factory and arrested Wasif Butt, Jamshed, Shahzad Ali, Shaukat Husain and Sajjad while another suspect Suhail Butt managed to escape.

Mr Bhatti said the gas was being used directly to run the burner that could lead to a big mishap. He said the storage capacity of furnace oil in the factory was 200,000 litre while 500 ton carbon was lying in the open.

He said factory owners did not obtain an NOC from the Oil and Gas Regularitory Authority, Environment Department, Labour Department and the district and tehsil administrations.

He said there was no fire-fighting equipment in the factory, adding that the action was taken for violating Petroleum Act, Environment Act, labor laws and TMA building bylaws.

The District Labour Department lodged five challans against factory owners.

COMMITS SUICIDE: A 20-year-old girl ended her life by jumping from the Kutchery Chowk flyover over some family dispute here on Saturday.

The Rescue 1122 personnel said when Afifa Bibi jumped from the flyover she was holding a letter in her hand in which she apologized from her family over several family issues. She was shifted to Nishtar Hospital in a critical condition where she died after a few hours.

Police said that Afifa was a resident of Haji Block, Muzaffarabad, and was a B.Com student at Commerce College, Hazori Bagh Road.