Sargodha men booked for setting eight-year-old's face on fire

SARGODHA: A group of men were booked for setting a minor boy's face on fire, police confirmed on Thursday, although the motive behind the incident could not be ascertained.

The accused — all three of whom were identified in the first information report (FIR) filed on behalf of the eight-year-old boy's father — doused the child's face in petrol and then set him ablaze in Sargodha's Jhawarian town, police said.

Police added that the boy's face was severely burnt.

In his statement to the police, the boy's father said three young men set his son's face on fire after throwing petrol on him. "I sell pakoras [fritters] for a living and have no enmity with anyone," he said.