Hotelier, LPG shop owner booked after gas explosion
A day after a hotel collapse in Jhelum — triggered by a gas explosion — claimed seven lives, the Punjab police on Monday registered a first information report (FIR) against the hotel owner and another for running an “illegal” liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder shop in the basement of the building.
The three-storey private hotel located on the Grand Trunk Road near Jhelum collapsed yesterday, trapping a number of people underneath the rubble.
After a day-long rescue operation, 10 people were retrieved alive from the debris and transferred to hospitals.
Earlier today, an FIR was lodged at Jhelum’s Kala Gujran police station by Sub-inspector (SI) Ashar Saleem.
The complaint, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, invokes sections 337H (punishment for hurt by rash or negligent act), 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter), 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance ) and 109 (punishment of abetment if the Act abetted committed In consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
According to SI Saleem, he was on routine duty along with other officers in the area when they heard an explosion nearby at 9:45am on Sunday. “When we reached the site, the Mian Sikander Hotel had collapsed and a number of people stuck under the rubble could be heard calling for help.”
The complainant said Rescue 1122 teams immediately arrived at the site and a rescue operation was launched.
“We found out that a man, identified as Qaiser Mehmood, was running an illegal gas cylinder refill shop in the basement of the hotel,” the officer said in the FIR, claiming that the explosion occurred when one of the gas cylinders exploded.
Sunday’s blast was the second such notable.
