Man, son shot dead

KOHAT, Dec 15: A man and his son were killed while another was injured when some attackers entered a house and opened indiscriminate firing on the inmates. As a result, Gulab Khan and his son Ibraheem Khan were killed on the spot.

The bodies were shifted to KDA Divisional Headquarters Hospital for autopsy and later handed over to the family for burial.

The Bilitang police have registered a case against unknown assailants on the complaint of Zahira Jan, wife of Gulab Khan.

Meanwhile, a young man, Wahid Khan, was shot dead in the Jungalkhel area of Kohat on Thursday. The Jungalkhel police have registered a case against Essa Khan and Jehanzeb Khan and started investigation. The accused have escaped from the area. —Correspondent

Police officials transferred

KARAK, Dec 15: The deputy inspector general of police Kohat region transferred the entire staff of Takht-i-Nusrati police station on Thursday.

DIG Masood Afridi ordered the transfer of 18 police officials and posted them in Kohat and Hangu districts. The DIG also posted inspector Jehangir Khan as SHO of Takht-i-Nusrati police station, replacing Yousaf Khan Khattak.

Sources said that the police authorities have decided that no police official from the Khattak tribe would be posted in Takht-i-Nusrati police station to ensure transparent investigation into the killing of Alamzeb Khattak, the brother of alleged gang rape victim. —Correspondent

Students stage protest

CHITRAL, Dec 15: The students of Government Polytechnic Institute Chitral held a protest rally here on Thursday against the forced evacuation of their college building to establish the sub-campus of Khan Abdul Wali Khan University.

The protesting students also staged a sit-in at PIA chowk and blocked the road for two hours. They were chanting slogans against the provincial government for depriving them of their building for which, they said, they had waited for long.

They said that the building of the college had earlier been formally inaugurated by the technical education minister, Mahmood Zaib Khan, in June last but now the chief minister staged another drama to set up the university campus at the premises.

Later, the students dispersed after DCO Rahmatullah Wazir assured them that they would be provided ample space for their classes. —Correspondent

Teachers asked to report

GHALANAI, Dec 15: The Mohmand Agency education department has again issued notices to the teachers to ensure their presence in schools after the security forces cleared the Safi and Baizai tehsils of militants.

Sources said on Thursday that the authorities warned that the teachers who failed to report on duty within a week would be considered as terminated from service. The sources said that many female and male teachers were still absent from duty.

The security forces had cleared the Safi and Baizai areas and all the government schools were reopened after a break of four years. About 83 government schools have been destroyed by militants in these areas, so far. —Correspondent

Hazards of uplift projects

PESHAWAR, Dec 15: Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan has directed the Peshawar Development Authority director general to hold meeting with senior citizens and different civil society organisations in order to remove their reservations about different ongoing developmental projects in Peshawar.

The chief justice also directed the directorate of environment to prepare a report about the environmental affects of the projects. The chief justice issued these directives during a meeting with a delegation of senior citizens led by social worker Begum Farida Nishtar here on Thursday.

The delegation expressed reservations about some of the ongoing projects like flyovers and feared that in addition to the environmental degradation, these schemes would lead to destruction of historical status of Peshawar. —Bureau Report

Malakand development

PESHAWAR, Dec 15: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Finance Engineer Mohammad Humayun Khan has urged international donor agencies and non-governmental organisations to undertake large flood protection and rehabilitation projects in Malakand division.

Talking to a three-member Department for International Development (DFID) delegation that called on him here on Thursday, the minister said the people of Malakand division needed assistance to recover from the adverse affects of last year’s floods.

He said international non-governmental organisations should come forward and focus their attention to rehabilitate the flood-affected people of Malakand.

According to official handout, the DFID delegation, led by the head of operations for European Union, Berend de Groot, apprised the KP finance minister about his organisation’s development interventions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in general, and in Malakand division, in particular. —Bureau Report

Accreditation denied

ABBOTTABAD, Dec 15: Students of Havelian campus of Hazara University went on strike here on Thursday to protest against the decision of Pakistan Pharmacy Council to refuse accreditation to the university’s pharmacy department.

The pharmacy council has also banned new admissions in the pharmacy department at Havelian campus, while admission in the first semester has been cancelled.

The protesters said that the decision would put the future of more than 250 students of the university at stake. They blamed the management of Hazara University for its inability to get recognition or approval from Pakistan Pharmacy Council.

A team of pharmacy council, which visited the Havelian campus on Wednesday, outrightly refused to grant accreditation to pharmacy department due to lack of facilities and basic requirements of the department. —Correspondent