BAHAWALPUR, June 16: Hasilpur police on Friday registered a murder case against scores of people for allegedly killing prayer leader Hafiz Qamar Javed at Choonawala on Thursday. Earlier, police had registered a case under the Blasphemy Act against the deceased and his colleague. According to Bahawalpur DPO Arif Nawaz, three people — Saeed Ahmed, Muhammad Akram and Qari Mohyuddin — have been nominated in the FIR in addition to scores of others (unidentified so far) who had lynched Javed and injured his companion Master Muhammad Sadiq.

Belonging to Ahl-e-Hadith sect, Hafiz Javed landed in trouble when he was reportedly burning some trash. People from a rival Sunni sect propagated that Javed was burning worn-out pages from holy Quran.

Meanwhile, the body of Hafiz Javed Qamar was buried at Choonawala amid tight security and in the presence of a large number of people.

According to the DPO, police had enhanced security following a complaint by the Ahle Hadith group that a rival Sunni sect was out to take possession of its mosque.

BODIES: Business watch committees would be formed at police station, circle and district levels in Bahawalpur to promote business activities with the cooperation of police.

This was stated by Bahawalpur chamber of commerce and industry president Mehboob Nasir here on Friday.

Explaining the pupose, he said that these committees would comprise BCCI members, traders, office-bearers and police officials. In this respect a meeting of chamber office-bearers and police officials was held here on Friday.

The meeting decided that all modalities in this respect would be completed by the end of the current month and this new system could be enforced with effect from July 1.

DROWN: Two brothers drowned in a canal near Baghdadul Jadid railway station here on Friday.

Naveed (19) and Ali (17), sons of Asif, a Hakim in Model Town B, went for a picnic. Ali dived into the canal when his brother raised hue and cry for help, but both of them drowned.

Receiving information, the police and an emergency squad rushed to the spot, but they failed to fish out bodies till the filing of this report.

DISTRIBUTED: Corps commander Lt-Gen Imtiaz Hussain distributed medals and prizes among army players who earned distinctions in national games, according to an ISPR press release issued here on Friday.

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