GUJRANWALA: One of the four students who swallowed wheat pills over their failure to get through the ninth class annual examination died at the DHQ Hospital here on Thursday.

Reports said Saim Rafiq of Gill Road, Sheeza, Aslam Hidayat of Kashmir Road and Abdullah of Gulberg Colony took wheat pills in dejection. They were rushed to DHQ Hospital where Rafique died while the condition of the remaining students was said to be critical.

Police are looking into the matter.

Murdered: The brother of a Tehreek Minhajul Quran’s local official was shot dead by unidentified attackers on Sargodha Road on Thursday.

Malik Muhammad Afzal, brother of TMQ local vice-president Malik Muhammad Arshad of Naushera Road, was returning home from Islamabad by his car, along with three others on motorway.

Near Kot Momin interchange, Sargodha Road, four unidentified armed men signaled the car to stop. Instead, Afzal tried to speed away but they opened indiscriminate fire. A bullet hit Afzal who died on the spot.

Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri condemned the killing during his speech at Islamabad.

The deceased was laid to rest in the main graveyard in the presence of hundreds of PAT and TMQ workers.

Meanwhile, Gujranwala City Police Officer Waqas Nazir in an official handout claimed no murder took place in city jurisdiction as a result of firing on any vehicle bearing a PAT flag.

Kot Momin police claim no one came to them so far for FIR registration.

LOOTED: The robbers looted three traders in separate incidents in the city on Thursday.

Police said four outlaws entered the house of a local trader, Muhammad Amin, in Allama Iqbal Town by scaling the outer wall. They held inmates hostage at gunpoint and collected Rs650,000 cash and other valuables and escaped.

In another incident, two armed men arrived at a shop owned by Humayun and took away Rs200,000 in cash at gunpoint in Nian Chowk area.

In the third incident, two motorcyclists deprived a trader, Ijaz Ahmad, of Muslim Road, of Rs50,000.

He was on his way home after withdrawing the cash from a bank.

Police are investigating the matter.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2014