NEWS IN BRIEF

Published January 6, 2012

No hope of recovering girl

RAWALPINDI, Jan 5: The family of three-year-old girl suspected to be drowned in nullah had lost hopes of finding her alive as the search operation was suspended on Thursday.

Alisha went missing while playing outside her house in Tehli Moori area on Wednesday afternoon.

Her father, Ghulam Abbas, said that most people involved in search operation believed that she was not drowned. He said that the search operation was suspected because they believed that she was taken away by some kidnappers.

The search for the missing girl was started by Rescue 1122 team and later more then 50 workers of Cantonment Board also joined the search operation. Later, in the evening, the divers from the Navy were also called out. The police registered the case and suspected that the girl was not drowned but abducted.—Staff Reporter

Factory looted

ISLAMABAD, Jan 5: An employee of a local factory was shot injured during a robbery of Rs2.8million in capital’s rural area on Thursday night, police said.

The incident took place at Everest Plastic Pipe Factory, located at Ghaffar Khan Road Tarnol, where a gang of robbers armed with sophisticated weapons raided and held owners, a driver and other employees of the factory at gunpoint.

The robbers demanded to handover the money which was brought in the factory moments ago. However, the employee – Mohammad Ibrahim, a driver by profession – put up resistance which annoyed the robbers who shot him injured.

Later they snatched cash Rs2.8million from the owner and escaped from the spot. The police were informed about the incident and the injured was shifted to hospital for medical assistance where he was stated in critical condition. The police sealed the area and started search operation.  — Staff Reproter

JI holds sit-in on 15th

ISLAMABAD, Jan 5: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) will stage a sit-in to protest the massive electricity load shedding, gas shortage, CNG crisis and price hike in the federal capital on January 15.

JI chief Syed Munawar Hasan will lead the sit-in, party’s Islamabad chief and former MNA Mian Muhammad Aslam said and added: “It will be a challenge for the people to register their protest against usurpation of their basic human rights”.

He said the people were witnessing price hikes of petroleum products, gas and electricity as against the past practice of once increase which was done in annual budget. — Staff Reporter

Shopping plaza, flats

RAWALPINDI, Jan 5: Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) will utilise its four kanals at Gowalmandi Water Reservoir to generate money by constructing a shopping plaza and rooms for its employees.

The RCB Cantonment Executive Officer Rana Manzoor Ahmed Khan on Thursday said that the board would construct shops and flats to utilise the vacant land adjacent to the water reservoir and generate money for itself. He said that the board had reduced the planned property tax in its limits and there was dire need to increase its income through other sources. He said that the RCB also planned to utilise its other vacant lands. He said that the cantonment board would spend Rs30 million for construction of the shopping plaza. He said that the land was located at main market of spare parts at Gowalmandi and it was expected that the annual rent of the shops would provide a handsome amount to the civic body which would be spent on its development schemes.

He said that the RCB would also construct flats over the shops and these flats would be given to the RCB employees. He said that the RCB employees without families were facing problems in finding better accommodation in different areas of the city. — A Reporter

Traders call off hunger strike

MUZAFFARABAD, Jan 5: The intra-Kashmir traders on Thursday called off their hunger strike and removed the trucks loaded with different items from Jhelum valley road, six days after they pulled them up there in protest against the alleged bullying and intimidation by Pakistan customs.

They took the steps after AJK Chief Secretary Muhammad Shehzad Arbab assured them during a meeting that their vehicles would not be intercepted or confiscated by the customs officials.

However, the traders said that the calling off strike and movement of the vehicles was conditional and trans-Line of Control (LoC) trade would remain suspended until a guarantee was given to them in writing by the authorities concerned that their vehicles would not be seized in future.

Regarding the 9 trucks confiscated by the customs officials early last month, the chief secretary said that the traders would have to pay 50 per cent of the customs duty which was normally levied on the goods ferried by these vehicles.

Representatives of traders told the chief secretary that intra-Kashmir traders were merchandising only those items on barter basis which the governments of India and Pakistan had mutually agreed.— Staff Correspondent

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