Blast victims die in hospital

SWABI, Feb 11: Two victims of Swabi grenade attack succumbed to their injuries at the district headquarters hospital Mardan. They were later buried at their ancestral graveyard in Swabi district on Saturday.

According to police and hospital sources, 22 persons, nine of them policemen, sustained injuries when unidentified attackers hurled hand grenades at a police van in the Shewa Adda after the rally of PTI chief Imran Khan was concluded on Friday.

The police officials were reportedly returning to the police lines in their vehicle when they were attacked. The attackers hurled two hand grenades at the police van, injuring nine personnel, including a female constable. Ten civilians also suffered wounds.

The injured were taken to district headquarters hospitals in Swabi and Mardan.

However, Suhail, son of Amanullah, and Khaneemullah succumbed to their wounds at the DHQ Mardan. Their bodies were brought to Shawa area where they were laid to rest amid moving scenes.—Correspondent

Long power outages

UPPER DIR, Feb 11: Instead of stopping loadshedding in Upper Dir after the announcement by Federal Minister for Power and Natural Resources Naveed Qamar, Pesco has increased the duration of outages in the district.

The residents asked the minister to resign after failing to keep his promise. Before the announcement, power was suspended for five to six hours a day but now it has exceeded 15 hours.

“Electricity supply remained suspended for the whole day after the minister made that hollow statement,” said Ikramullah, a resident of Dir town. A resident Toti Rahman said officials of the Chukiatan grid station hurled abuses at him when he inquired about the long outages on phone.

Domestic consumers and traders have asked the Pesco high-ups to at least reduce the duration of the loadshedding, if they could not stop it altogether. They warned if prolonged outages continued, they would not pay power bills. The residents also demanded of the government to sack the minister for making a false statement in the parliament.—Correspondent

Two persons abducted

KOHAT, Feb 11: Two men were abducted from Sorgul area in a case of honour by the rival party on Saturday.

The father of one of the abducted persons told Jarma police that they had an honour dispute going on with the rivals after a woman of their (opponents’) family residing in Muslimabad went missing.

Unknown people arrested Abdur Razziq and Mohammad Yasir from the mountains of Sorgul and made them hostage in their hujra.

The hostage takers sent a message to the father of the victim that they would release their men after they freed the woman, who they claimed was in their custody.

The Jarma police registered case on the complaint of Habibur Rehman and launched investigations.—Correspondent

Use of iodised salt urged

PESHAWAR, Feb 11: Experts at a workshop on Saturday said that lack of iodine was responsible for growing number of goitre patients and said that several ailments could be controlled by using the iodised salt.

“Through scaling up awareness we can overcome enlargement of thyroid glands among the population particularly women,” said executive district officer, health Dr Arshad Khan, while speaking at the workshop organised by the Micronutrient Initiative.

The people should consume iodised salt to be at safe from other diseases such as low-weight, low IQ and malnourishment, he said. Other speakers, including Dr Qaiser Ali and Naeem Wazir of Micronutrient Initiative, called upon doctors and clerics to highlight the importance of iodine for human health.—Correspondent

JUI-S names candidates

KARAK, Feb 11: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Samiul Haq group) announced its candidates for next general election on three seats of Karak district on Saturday.

At a meeting, the party’s Karak chapter unanimously decided that former MNA Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz would contest the election on the National Assembly seat of Karak. The meeting was presided over by JUI-S district president Maulana Imam Mohammad.

A large number of religious leaders were present on the occasion.

The meeting decided that the party’s candidate for provincial assembly constituency (KP-40) would be Iqbal Faryadi, while former union council nazim Khushal Mohammad would be candidate for KP-41.—Correspondent

Teachers’ training

TIMERGARA, Feb 11: The closing ceremony of 1st professional competency enhancement programme for teachers (PCEPT) of the University of Malakand was held on Saturday.

Director, Learning Innovation Division of the HEC Farman Ullah Anjum and Prof Dr Mohammad Rasul Jan, Vice-Chancellor, University of Malakand, attended the certificate distribution ceremony.

Certificates were awarded to 35 participants of the training programme.

Coordinator PCEPT Altaf Hussain overviewed the training programme and gave vote of thanks on behalf of the participants.

Farman Ullah encouraged the participants and assured his assistance in continuing such programmes on regular basis in future. Dr Rasul Jan thanked the HEC for taking measures to make such programmes possible. He also announced establishing a staff training institute in the University of Malakand on priority basis for training the faculty members of the university as well as staff of the affiliated colleges.—Correspondent