April 3, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 30, 1424

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ATTOCK, April 2: As many as 40 prisoners were released from the District Jail, Attock, under special remission announced by the government on the occasion of Pakistan Day, sources said.

When contacted, the jail superintendent, Rana Abdul Rauf, on Wednesday confirmed the release of prisoners.

He said special remission of 45 days had been also given to all prisoners except those convicted of murder, espionage, subversion, anti-state activities, terrorist act, rape, kidnapping and robbery.

CONTAMINATED WATER: The National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, has found out that water samples collected from various areas of Attock city are unfit for human consumption, sources said.

The sources said, on frequent complaints by the public regarding supply of polluted drinking water, the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA), Attock, had collected water samples from different areas of the city and sent it to the NIH for laboratory tests.

The TMA recently received the test reports, which declared water being supplied to various areas including Muhallah Bijli Ghar was unfit to drink.

It was also found that deadly diseases including hepatitis could spread among the residents owing to drinking of the polluted water, the sources said.

While confirming the report, the Tehsil Nazim, Attock, Qazi Khalid Mehmood, said there were few areas where the water was found contaminated while test reports of majority areas of the city had been found satisfactory.

He said the pipelines in some areas were decaying and due to which the water got contaminated.

However, after receiving the test reports, all necessary measures are being taken to solve the problem in the affected areas of the city.

The sources said the reports also showed that many people including children were infected with Hepatitis owing to polluted drinking water.

Moreover, recently nine out of ten persons of Attock were found infected with hepatitis during medical checkup at Overseas Employment Exchange, Islamabad, when they applied for some overseas employment.