PRAYAGRAJ, Dec. 27 -- A truck loaded with 48 tons of lentils caught fire on the highway near the Nawabganj area here. in the wee hours of Friday. While the incident reduced both the vehicle and its cargo to ashes, the driver narrowly escaped, police said. The driver, Azim Khan, was transporting lentils from Kanpur to Varanasi. It is said that the truck had a breakdown in Hathigawan of Pratapgarh on December 23 night. When it was parked on the roadside after the breakdown, a container truck collided with it from behind, killing driver Naresh Nath from Vaishali district of Bihar. After the accident, Azim Khan resumed his journey toward Varanasi on Thursday night. However, near Malak Balau village in the Nawabganj police station area of Prayagraj, the truck caught fire, reportedly due to a short circuit. Within minutes, the flames engulfed the truck and 48 tons of grains it was carrying. The NHAI team, local police, and the fire brigade eventually controlled the fire, but the truck and its cargo were completely destroyed. Dense fog on the highway worsened the situation, leading to a long traffic jam on the Kanpur-Varanasi route. Pratapgarh's Hathigawan SHO, Satyendra Singh, confirmed that a FIR had been filed for the earlier accident, and the postmortem of the deceased container driver was completed. He added that Nath's family chose not to file any further case. The lentil-laden truck, though damaged, was taken for repairs, while the container truck is yet to be repaired. Sub-Inspector Vinay Yadav of Prayagraj's Nawabganj police station said that police arrived at the site early Friday morning after being alerted about the truck catching fire. No casualties were reported in the fire incident, he said....