January 16, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 06, 1429

GUJRANWALA, Jan 15: A murder suspect being taken to the sessions court from judicial lock-up in police custody was shot dead allegedly by his rivals here on Tuesday.

Zafar of Bhopra Kalan village near Tatley was detained in Central Jail and was being tried by a sessions court judge for his alleged involvement in a murder case.

When Zafar was being escorted to the courtroom on Tuesday, three assailants came and shot at him, killing him on the spot.

The police pursued the fleeing assailants and captured one of them, who was later identified as Shahid of Kangniwala and seized a pistol and several bullets from his possession.

A few days ago, Zafar’s alleged accomplice Tariq was also shot dead by his rivals when he was coming out from the Central Jail after serving his sentence for keeping unlicensed weapons in the same murder case.

The family of the victim had pardoned Tariq. The police registered a case and started investigation.

KITE FLYING: Three kite sellers were arrested and over 1,500 kites and sizeable quantity of string were seized by the police on the directives of the inspector general of police (IGP) during a crackdown in Ghakkar on Tuesday.

Some citizens had complained to the IG that kite flying was going on in full swing while several children had been injured due to this activity.

The IG directed the Gujranwala city police officer to launch a crackdown on kite vendors on which a party headed by the station house officer arrested Moon Gill, Shahid Nazir and Zahoor Ahmad and recovered kites and string from them on Tuesday.

A case has been registered against them while crackdown was continuing till the filing of this report.