LPG blasts: Three die, 20 injured in two accidents

An illegal refilling facility, restaurant destroyed by explosion, fire.

FAISALABAD/SARGODHA:


Three people including two children were killed and eight others suffered injuries in a blast at an illegally set up liquefied-petroleum-gas cylinder refilling facility near Moj Darya shrine in Jhang on Friday.


Five injured were taken to Allied Hospital where doctors were treating them for burn injuries. Medical superintendent Rana Bashir described their condition as critical and said they were under treatment at the intensive care unit. He identified them as shop owner Ghulam Nabi, Ghulam Rasool, Shahid Shah, Babar Naseer and Nadeem Ashraf.

The remaining three suffered minor injuries for which they were being treated at Jhang district headquarters (DHQ) hospital. Two of the deceased were identified as Taimur and Ikram.

Jhang Saddar police said Nabi had been operating an illegal business of refilling LPG cylinders. They said the suspect did not have a permit needed for running an LPG-cylinder refilling facility. They said only authorised businesses were allowed to refill LPG cylinders.


Police said they would register a case against the owner once he regained consciousness. “The suspect himself is critically injured. We will move to prosecute him once he regains consciousness,” they said.

On Friday, they said, Nabi was decanting LPG when it caught fire, causing an explosion.

Jhang district coordination officer Shahid Niaz said an inquiry has been launched in the incident. He said the government would soon crackdown on such illegal refilling stations in the city. He said the police had been asked to launch an operation to arrest people responsible for running such businesses.

In another incident in Sargodha, 12 people were injured in an LPG cylinder blast at a restaurant on University Road on Friday.  Satellite Town police said three of the injured were identified as Ghulam Abbas, Fazal and Saqlain. They said the LPG cylinder being used in the kitchen of the restaurant caught fire and exploded, injuring all 12 people on the scene.

The injured were taken to Sargodha district headquarters (DHQ) hospital by Rescue 1122 officials. Police said a case had been registered in the incident. APP

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2012.
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