BAHAWALPUR: The Vehari additional district and sessions judge on Tuesday handed down life imprisonment along with fine to two rapists of Mailsi.

According to the prosecution, convicts Muhammad Ali and Amir Hamza had gang-raped `S` in January, 2024. The Saddar Vehari police on the complaint of victim`s relative had registered a first information report and after their arrest submitted their challans to the court.

The court on Tuesday handed down life imprisonment to Muhammad Ali and Amir Hamza along with a fine of Rs100,000 each.

SEWERMEN: Two out of three sewer workers fell unconscious after entering an underground sewer line for cleaning in Uch Sharif, about 70 km from here, on Tuesday.

According to Rescue 1122 personnel, the workers, identified as Jaffer and Ijaz, were pulled out in an unconscious state and shifted to the Rural Health Centre Uch Sharif, where they were admitted for treatment.

The third worker was rescued in a conscious condition.

BURNS UNIT: The Punjab government has approved the establishment of a burns unit at Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH) and allocated Rs4.5 billion for the project.

The burns unit, urgently needed for many years, has been approved 12 years after former prime minister Nawaz Sharif announced it.In 2013, more than 132 people were burnt alive and many others injured in the oil tanlcer fire explosion on the Bahawalpur-Ahmedpur East highway near Ahmedpur East, about 40 km from here. Most of the victims had to be shifted to the burns unit at Nishtar Hospital, Multan, for treatment.

During his visit to the site, the former prime minister had announced that the then PML-N government would establish a burns unit at BVH; however, despite repeated public demands, the project was never approved, nor was any budget allocated for it in previous years.

A source in the office of theDirectorDevelopment, Bahawalpur, told Dawn that the approved burns unit will have a capacity of 50 beds, and funds may be released under next year`s Annual Development Programme (ADP).

Meanwhile, Minister of State Abdul Rehman Kanju stated that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has released Rs0.6 billion for the completion of the under-construction Kahror Pacca-Lodhran road.

The road is currently under construction, and a tragic incident in which a young boy died after falling into an uncovered manhole occurred there on Saturday.

According to the minister, the chief minister, during a phone conversation with him, directed that the road be completed before June 2026.

She also expressed her condolences over the death of the minor boy from Lodhran.