TOBA TEK SINGH: Seven passengers were critically burnt after a van caught fire on Saturday night near the Central Jail on Jaranwala Road in Faisalabad.

Rescue 1122 ambulances shifted the injured to the Allied Hospital’s burn unit.

Rescuers said the van was on its way from Jaranwala to Faisalabad and a short circuit caused the fire.

The injured were identified as Sajida Bibi (50), Muhammad Akram (55), Noor Fatima (17), Salman Ahmad (27), Muhammad Asif (45), Muhammad Yousaf (75) and Taj Muhammad (42).

Meanwhile, in a head-on collision between a motorcycle and a rickshaw, the biker died and the rickshaw driver was critically injured on Saturday on the Shorkot Cantonment Road in Jhang near Machar Chowk due to thick fog.

The deceased was identified as Muhammad Asif (30), while the injured, identified as Zahid Abbas, was shifted to the Shorkot THQ Hospital.

BOOKED FOR RAPE: A man was booked for raping and making a relative girl pregnant in Mouza Thatha Syedwala of the Tandlianwala tehsil.

In his complaint, the father of the victim told the Garh Police that his cousin from Okara often visited his house. He claimed that he developed illicit relations with his daughter (18) and she became pregnant due to repeatedly being raped by the accused. He further claimed that the accused also blackmailed her by making objectionable videos.

Police were conducting raids to arrest the accused.

Meanwhile, a married woman was allegedly kidnapped in Chak 98 JB Gojra on Saturday.

The Gojra City police said that as per complainant Muhammad Shafiq, his wife Kiran Bibi was alone at home when four unidentified persons abducted her and fled in a car.

BAIL REFUSED: Gojra Judicial Magistrate Malik Waqar Ahmad rejected the bail plea of Asghar Nawaz alias Guggoo Warraich, an accused of attempted murder on Dr Waseem Cheema and his wife Dr Seemi Cheema.

He was arrested when he and his accomplices had shot and injured the couple in their clinic in June 2025.

He attacked the couple over a dispute over municipal committee tax amount on signboards as the accused was the MC contractor. Meanwhile, Faisalabad Additional District and Sessions Judge Rana Imran Shafiq handed down nine year imprisonment along with a fine of Rs100,000 to a narcotic case convict on Saturday.

Khurrianwala Police had arrested convict Muhammad Shakil and recovered a large quantity of drugs from his custody a year ago.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2026