January 18, 2003	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 14, 1423

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SIALKOT, Jan 17: Thousands of workers have been rendered jobless by the prolonged suspension of Sui Gas supply to city’s industrial units.

The supply of Sui Gas has been suspended to thousands of factories and industrial units for the last 10 days. Factory owners have been forced to sack thousands of workers and close their factories and industrial units.

“The SNGPL had announced that the supply of gas would be suspended to factories only temporarily but failed to restore the supply even after the passage of 10 days,” said Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) vice-president Malik Mohammad Ashraf.

The sacked and daily-wage workers have demanded immediate restoration of gas supply to city’s industrial units.

LANDMINE BLAST: Two villagers were injured seriously on Friday in a landmine blast in Jarwal village of the Sialkot working boundary’s Charwa sector.

Sources said Bashir Ahmad (24) and Abdul Sattar (30) were passing through the fields in a thick fog when the landmine went off as soon as they stepped over it. They sustained wounds and were admitted to Sialkot CMH in critical condition.

Meanwhile, the Indian troops continued firing with light machine guns on villages in the working boundary’s Chhumb Joriyan, Bajwat, Jammu and Saamba sectors. No causality has yet been reported.

LOOTED: Three armed robbers on late Thursday snatched a car (STJ-199), Rs16,000 in cash, a mobile phone and a licensed rifle from a Daska PPP leader and his friend near Bhopalwala.

The robbers intercepted Asif Sherwani and Shahid, made them hostage and took them towards Nandgarh village and pushed them out of the car in a field after tying them with ropes.

Sambrial police have registered a case against Rizwan alias Mani, Zeeshan alias Nasiri and Boota of Begowala village.

On the Daska-Sialkot Road near Ghueinky village (Motra), three armed robbers snatched a car (GAJ-4488), thousands of rupees in cash and two mobile phones from Rafiq, Abid and Muhammad Amjad.

Motra police have registered a case.

DEAD AT “129”: The “129-year-old” landlord Allah Rakha died here on Friday after a protracted illness.

He was laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard in Daska’s Mandnanwala village in the presence of hundreds of mourners. He left behind 109 grandchildren.