July 4, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 3,1424

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RAWALPINDI, July 3: A Thai woman carrying heroin-filled capsules in her stomach was off-loaded from an Emirates flight at Islamabad International Airport on Thursday, the customs authorities said.

Assistant Commissioner Customs Tahir Qureshi spotted a foreigner woman, Phattahiya, acting suspiciously during checking of the Emirates flight EK-615 bound for Dubai.

Deputy Superintendent Customs Drug Cell Inam-ul-Haq arrested the woman and shifted her to Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was given a purgative.

According to the customs authorities, 76 capsules containing about one kilogramme heroin have so far been recovered, while more such capsules are expected to be recovered from her stomach.

Preliminary investigation by the customs authorities suggested that the accused woman had twice travelled to Pakistan in the recent past and stayed in Lahore. Before departing for Johannesburg via Dubai, she stayed at a five star hotel in Islamabad for a night.

Meanwhile, five vehicles were either snatched or stolen from different parts of Rawalpindi and Islamabad on Thursday, police said.

Three robbers snatched a cab (LHR-9696) from its driver at gunpoint in Rawat and escaped.

A Toyota car (IDF-3154) was stolen from Satellite Town, and another car NWFP-4635 was lifted from Blue Area. Similarly, two motorbikes (IDG-6149, RIX-6354) were stolen from Margalla police area.

Meanwhile, a labourer fell into a well and died when the rope broke off. Ghulam Mustafa, 30, a resident of Chontra, was lowering into a well with the help of a rope when it broke off. He fell into the well and died.

According to the rescuers, when they telephoned the Rescue 15 for ambulance, they were told that the vehicle was out of order. However, the body of the labourer was fished out of the well and shifted to the DHQ hospital for autopsy.

In the second incident, the body of a cab driver Mohammad Younus was found in a well at Bharakau on Thursday.

The 40-year-old driver, a resident of Tarlai Kalan, had been missing for the last ten days. Police said Younus seemed to have been strangled by some unknown persons and thrown into the well.