SHANGLA: Athree-storey wooden house was destroyed and 14 cattle heads were killed after a fire broke out in a room of the house in Kass Pagorai area of Alpuri tehsil here on Thursday.

A resident told Dawn that an electric short circuit caused the fire, which immediately engulfed the entire house and cattle pen, killing 14 buffaloes, cows and goats.

He complained that Rescue 1122 workers couldn`t reach the area on time to extinguish the fire.

House owner Kareem Elahi demanded shelter for him and his family in the freezing weather. He also urged the district administration, disaster management authority and philanthropists to help him rebuildhis house.

Meanwhile, the Shangla administration on Thursday established a district emergency operation centre for the district health emergency operations.

Shangla deputy commissioner Mohammad Fawad Khan said that the centre was crucial for the district to achieve the goals of anti-polio campaigns.

He said the centre would monitor the progress of campaigns, effective coordination with the different stakeholders, data analysis and other relevant activities to enhance the campaign objectives.

COALMINER LAID TO REST: A miner, who was killed in a coalmine incident in Kalar Kahar area of Punjab the other day, was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard onThursday.

Spokesman for Shangla Coal Mine Worker Rights Association Abid Yar told Dawn that the Kalar Kahar incident left two Shangla workers critically injured, with Masoodur Rehman of Dehrai Belkanai succumbing to his injuries afterward.-Correspondent