Fire at a Lahore plaza traps dozens

LAHORE: Several people were trapped in a shopping plaza located in a posh neighbourhood of Lahore when a fire broke out on Friday, FTNews reported. According to initial reports, the fire, which broke out at the top floor of Orega Plaza in Gulberg, has now engulfed the affected floor completely. At least nine fire brigades were busy extinguishing fire, which has turned so fierce that the billboards fixed on the front of the building have started falling down. Rescuers were busy evacuating the customers from plaza. It is difficult to estimate exact number of trapped people inside the buildin...

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Posted in: REGIONAL

Police disperses rally for Dr Aafia in Karachi

KARACHI: Police on Friday baton-charged and used water cannons to disperse a protest rally of Pasban that intended to march towards the US Consulate in Karachi to raise the issue of detention of Dr Aafia Siddiqui. About a dozen protest leaders including sister of the detained Pakistani Dr Fouzia Siddiqui were arrested. Police applied baton-charge and lobbed teargas shells to the rally besides firing shots in air at Abdullah Haroon Road in Saddar area. Police took into custody Pasban president Altaf Shakoor and Dr Siddiqui along with a dozen other Pasban activists for attempting to enter the “red zone” of the metropolis. Pasban had announced to besiege the US consulate in protest to highlight the plights of Dr Aafia, presently languishing...

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Posted in: REGIONAL

‘Fifty-nine missing persons recovered in Balochistan’

QUETTA: The Balochistan Government on Friday said that out of 148 missing persons in the province, 16 had been found dead while 59 had been recovered, FTNews reported. A senior provincial official told a press conference here that there were cases pending against 148 missing persons in various courts. Last year, 110 people were kidnapped out of which 70 had been recovered, he adde...

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Posted in: REGIONAL