Arson attack?: Farm animals killed after cattle pen set on fire

Blaze guts house in Abbottabad village

MANSEHRA: Over half a dozen farm animals  were burnt alive when unidentified miscreants allegedly set a cattle ranch on fire in a remote village of Battagram.

Bakht Bibi, a widow from Kharbora village, told Chanjal police that  after feeding and locking up her goats, cows and buffaloes in the cow pen on Saturday evening,  she went to bed . However,  when she awoke on Sunday morning and ventured out of the house to milk the cows, she found villagers dousing flames emanating from her cow pen.

She added that she helped the villagers put out the inferno but by then the fire had burnt four cows, a buffalo and four goats. The fire also destroyed two rooms of the ranch, bundles of hay, and other fodder.

Bakht  estimated that she had lost hundreds of thousands of rupees due to the fire.

Although she did not point fingers at anyone for the offense, she said that in the past her dry grass and hay had twice been set on fire twice while some unidentified people used to pelt her home with stones every night.

Meanwhile, another house was burnt in Jabriyan village of Abbottabad.

Shiraz, the owner of the house, told police that he and his wife were attending a marriage ceremony in the village while their seven-year-old son was alone at home when the house caught fire. The villagers managed to rescue his son from the four-room house which was burnt to ashes within half an hour.

The house owner said that since the area was remote, fire fighters could not reach there on time. Meanwhile, police said that they believed that the fire started due to an electric short circuit.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2017.