November 16, 2007	Friday	Ziqa’ad 05, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Nov 15: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday arrested two senior officials of the forest department North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

The accused were involved in cutting precious trees illegally causing loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer, an official announcement said, adding that a divisional forest officer (working plan-II) Abbottabad and divisional forest officer Alpuri Forest Division Shangla were district arrested.

NAB, it said, had already arrested seven ‘members’ of the timber mafia — Forest Range Officer Farhad Sajid, four forest guards Mohammad Shaukat, Khwaja Mohammad, Ghulam Mohammad, Abdullah Jan — and two timber smugglers Mohammad Afzal and Munawar Shah.

It claimed that the timber mafia was involved in cutting of government forest reserves of Agrore Tanawal Forest division Mansehra, spread over hundreds of acres and containing valuable Kail and Chir species.—Staff Reporter