02 January 2005	Sunday	20 Ziqa'ad 1425

KARACHI, Jan 1: Two small children were burnt to death after their hut caught fire in Gulistan-i-Jauhar on Saturday.

Police said Hafizullah, a junk-dealer, had nine children and a wife. His wife worked as maidservant at several houses in Block-13 of the Gulistan-i-Jauhar. Hafiz went to work, so did his wife, taking along four of the children. She left behind five children in the hut established on a vacant plot. Hafiz's three children were playing outside the hut while two children, Boral, 3, and one-year-old Bilawal, were asleep inside the hut, which caught fire.

The children were burnt fatally by the time the fire brigade extinguished the fire. The three children, playing outside, remained safe.

ENCOUNTER: A police constable was shot and wounded in an encounter with Robbers in Kharadar on Saturday.

DSP Haseeb Beg said that two robbers entered a shop in Kharadar and tried to loot the shopkeeper at gunpoint. He raised alarm, and two constables, Khalid and Tariq, got alerted. They challenged the robbers, who fired on them. Khalid suffered a bullet wound and fell down. Tariq returned fire and held one of the robbers, identified as Raheel. Later, the people caught his accomplice, Abbas, and handed over to the police.