17 November 2004	Wednesday	04 Shawwal 1425

PESHAWAR, Nov 16: The police succeeded in restraining people from resorting to aerial firing and only two persons were injured by stray bullets in city suburbs on the eve of Eidul Fitr.

The Capital City Police launched a vigorous campaign against aerial firing about 10 days before Eid and held many meetings with local elders and prominent persons of different city areas.

Senior Superintendent of Police (operations) Abid Ali, who was in-charge of the campaign against aerial firing, met many local elders, including prayer-leaders in different areas, who played a major role in convincing the people about the negative impact of aerial firing.

Many people have lost their lives due to aerial firing and the police before this campaign had not shown any interest to educate the people about this menace.

"Only two persons were injured because of stray bullets on the night before Eid in areas near the tribal region," SSP Abid told Dawn here on Monday.

One victim was a resident of Sangu village and the other one was a resident of Bara Sheikhan. Both localities are near the tribal belt of Khyber Agency.

But these two were injured due to firing from the tribal area, where the people usually made announcement of the Eid through aerial firing, the SSP claimed.

"We succeeded in halting aerial firing by 80-90 per cent. And I assure people the incidence of aerial firing will further be reduced by next year," he said.