Man set on fire by friends over petty dispute

Victim insisted his friends to accompany him to a shrine

DASKA:

A man who was set on fire by his three friends over a petty dispute succumbed to his injuries on Friday.

Fayyaz Ahmad of Bhilo Mahar area was going with his wife and mother-in-law when he reached near Gadhpur stop, he saw his wife's brother Yasir Ali and his three friends Muneeb, Hamza, and Mani were exchanging harsh words. The suspects took out a bottle of petrol from a motorcycle, sprayed it on Yasir and set him on fire.

The victim tried to extinguish the fire and jumped into a tube-well. Yasir suffered severe burns and was shifted to a hospital in Sialkot by Rescue 1122. He was later referred to Lahore when as his condition deteriorated. Yasir succumbed to his burn injuries at a Lahore hospital. An FIR has been registered on the complaint of Yasir's brother-in-law Ahmed. Yasir's father is a taxi driver in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Ahmed said that Yasir used to visit Imam Sahib’s shrine in Sialkot every Thursday with his friends. On the day of the incident, he planned to go to Sialkot on his motorcycle to visit Imam Sahib’s shrine and he asked his friends to go with him on which an argument ensued among the friends.

During the exchange of harsh words, Yasir got furious and took out petrol from his motorcycle.

His friend Muneeb snatched the bottle of petrol from his hand and sprinkled it on him. Another friend Hamza lit a match, setting the victims on fire. The fire immediately engulfed Yasir who ran and jumped for help. He threw himself on the ground to extinguish the fire but it did not help. Yasir jumped in into a tube-well, however, by then he was severely burnt.

None of the suspects has been arrested so far.

Several such incidents were reported in the past in Daska. On September 28, Shazia, a resident of Kartarpur Tehsil, Zafarwal, Narowal District, got married 16 years ago to Rana Firdous, a resident of Pasrur. Shortly after the marriage, the in-laws started torturing the woman.

The locals reported that victim Shazia had been set on fire by her in-laws.

The in-laws of first took the victim to Narowal Hospital and later to Jinnah Hospital in Lahore where she succumbed to her injuries and died on the spot. Shazia was the mother of five children. Out of the four suspects in the case, two, including her husband have been arrested by police.

Due to the lack of burn units in Daska, Sambarial, Sialkot and Pasrur, the burn victims had to be referred to Lahore.