October 01, 2008	Wednesday	Shawwal 1, 1429

BAHAWALPUR, Sept 30: Panic gripped the area around Chak 13-BC on Tuesday when police and its allied agencies carried out a mock blast to check force's preparedness to deal with any terrorist act.

Reports said the mock blast caught people unaware when they were about to start their routine businesses in the morning. The sound of the blast reminded many of the recent terrorist act at Hasilpur derailing a train and claiming four lives.

People, especially women and children started running for their lives at 13-soling, a rural bus stop on main Bahawalpur-Yazman Road near the 'blast' site when they heard the notorious thud.

However, soon some police officials and personnel of other intelligence agencies appeared on the scene and tried to explain the situation to pacify the frightened people. The exercise was conducted in open area with sand dunes.

Police officials confirmed to Dawn that they had conducted the explosion to weigh the performance of the force and other agencies law-enforcing agencies. shot dead: A schoolteacher was shot dead by four men at his door step in Shikari locality of Ahmedpur East, about 40 kilometres from here, early on Tuesday morning.

Police said the assailants rang the bell of Shahbaz's house and opened fire at him when he opened the door at 'sehr'. He could just tell his wife about the number of attackers, fell unconscious and died. His wife could not tell the police anything about the killers.

PROTEST: APCA members staged a demonstration for the release of two tehsil municipal administration employees, who have been arrested for alleged negligence from duty.

The protesters assembled on TMA premises, raised slogans against officials and demanded that the cases against the officials should be withdrawn.

In a related development, the TMA city council adopted a resolution for withdrawal of cases against the TMA employees.