Eight killed on road

MANSEHRA, May 3: At least ten persons, a woman and child among them, were killed and eight others sustained critical injuries when a passenger vehicle plunged into a deep ravine in Dobar area of Kohistan on Tuesday.

The passenger wagon with 18 people on board was on way to Dasso from Besham. The driver lost control over the steering plunging the vehicle into deep ravine.

Mohammad Sarfaraz, a local who took part in the rescue work, told reporters seven bodies, including a woman and child, were retrieved and eight injured, five of them in critical condition, were taken to Dasso hospital. An official at Dasso police station said the bodies were still being retrieved by the locals and police. — Correspondent

329 outlaws held

MARDAN, May 3: Police arrested 329 outlaws and recovered huge quantity of arms and ammunition from them during a month-long search operation in Mardan city.

The police sources told Dawn the held outlaws were wanted in various cases of murder, attempt to murder, car-lifting, gambling, robberies and drug pushing.

Arms including 78 Kalashnikovs, 72 Kalakovs, 70 rifles, 106 shotguns, 684 pistols, one stand gun, 18,542 cartridges, 78.42kg hashish, 511 gram heroin and 101 bottles of wine were recovered, during the operation, conducted by a police team led by DPO Dr Zeshan Raza. — Correspondent

Press freedom

PESHAWAR, May 3: Minister for Information, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, has said freedom of press and democracy are deeply interlinked and the government is determined to guarantee the press freedom.

He said his government had always respected journalists and tried to extend cooperation to the media persons. In a statement on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day on Tuesday, he said his government’ love for press could be judged from the fact that the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in his first speech in the assembly had pledged to ensure press freedom at all costs.

He said journalism was an important but difficult profession as the media persons had to offer great sacrifices for fulfillment of their professional obligations in the prevailing situation. — Bureau Report

Power outages

KARAK, May 3: The Khattak Ittehad has demanded of the Pesco to conduct the loadshedding according to the schedule as people were suffering due to prolong outages.

The demand was made at a meeting of the organisation with its chief Maulana Mir Zaqeem in the chair on Tuesday. Mr Zaqeem said the unscheduled loadshedding had damaged standing crops and led to water shortage as tube-wells and water lines were non-functional.

The KI president demanded of the Pesco chief and Xen Karak Mohammad Sadiq Dawar to make the loadshedding according to schedule and threatened if the demand was not met they would come to streets. — Correspondent

Basic life needs

PESHAWAR, May 3: Chief Minister Ameer Haidar Hoti has said his government is following a policy to provide basic life needs to common man.

This he said while chairing a review meeting of the communication and works, public health engineering and Frontier Highway Authority departments here on Tuesday.

“Under the policy more and more funds have been allocated to ongoing and projects near to completion while new schemes have only been included on need and merit basis,” he added.

He said his government had followed the policy of making development strategy congruent to the needs and demands of the people. The CM said the government removed the concept of suspending ongoing schemes and allocating resources to new schemes. — Bureau Report

Water shortage

PESHAWAR, May 3: Residents of Rasheedabad, Charsadda Road, have been facing acute water shortage for the past several days due to a technical fault in the local tube-well.

Talking to media persons at Peshawar Press Club a group of elders led by Khurram Pervez said hundreds of families depended on the tube-well as there was no alternative water source in the area.

He said water supply to the residents had been stopped for the past five days and they were fetching water from far off areas.

The people, he said had repeatedly contacted the officials of Town-II but they were reluctant to remove the fault. — Bureau Report

Traders hold demo

PESHAWAR, May 3: Traders belonging to different bazaars on Tuesday held a protest demonstration at Hashtnagri against hike in the rates of petroleum products and asked the rulers to admit their failure and step down.

The protesters also burnt tyres and blocked a link road chanting anti-government slogans. They were also holding banners inscribed with slogans against the loadshedding and price hike of daily use commodities.

The protesters said owing to hike in the price of petroleum products the rates of all the daily use items had been increased and the poor people were unable to afford the routine expenditures.

They criticised the government for what they described its failure to come up to the peoples’ expectations and said politicians also could not materialise their election manifestos. — Bureau Report

Science exhibition

PESHAWAR, May 3: Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) in collaboration with Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry is organising a one day science and technology exhibition here on May 5 (Thursday).

Provincial Minister for Science and Technology and IT Mohammad Ayub Khan Ashari would grace the occasion as chief guest.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research was established in 1953 to promote the cause of science and technology in the country.—APP

Training workshop

PESHAWAR, May 3: The Kohat University of Science and Information Technology (KUST) and Institute of Education Research (IER), University of Peshawar, in collaboration with Higher Education Commission on Tuesday launched a month-long research skill workshop.

Teachers from IER and KUST and colleges would participate in the workshop being held under English Language Teaching Reforms Project.

The workshop will focus on research skills and their development, which would prove helpful in improving teaching methods of the participants, said M Naeem Butt, organiser of the workshop.—APP