Chinese national looted

ISLAMABAD, Sept 7: A Chinese national working on a project of the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL) was deprived of $3,000 by some car riders who introduced themselves as officials of the police special branch here on Friday.

It may be noted that Interior Minister Rehman Malik had on Thursday directed the inspector general of Islamabad police to take special measures for the security of the Chinese nationals working in the capital city. He had also directed the secretary interior to convene a meeting about the security of the Chinese working in Pakistan. The police said the Chinese national was intercepted by the car riders at Blue Area near Kulsoom Plaza, who said they were from the special branch of the police. The bandits started body search of the Chinese during which they snatched the $3,000 and fled. An officer of the army, responsible for the security of the Chinese nationals, lodged a complaint with Kohsar police for registration of a case.— Staff Reporter

Education can fight extremism

TAXILA, Sept 7: Federal Minister for Defence Production Sardar Bahadur Khan Sihar here paid tribute to the Heavy Industries Taxila Education City (HITEC) for imparting quality education to the people of the country.

During his visit to the HITEC on Thursday, the minister said only those nations excelled in all fields of life who relied on modern education as this was the only tool to defeat intolerance, extremism, illiteracy, poverty, unemployment and backwardness.

Briefing the minister, administrator of the HITEC Taj Iqbal said the city was established some six years back and it has been imparting education to students from pre-school to postgraduate level both in religious and modern sciences.

He said at the Islamic research centre, special studies were being carried out on religious education while at the HITEC university engineering studies were being offered to students from across the country. The minister also met a group of over 180 students, including females, from Fata and Balochistan who are getting free education at HITEC. — Correspondent

12 injured in separate incidents

TAXILA, Sept 7:  As many as 12 people were injured in two separate incidents in Hassanabdal and Taxila on Friday.

In the first incident, six people, including two employees of a CNG station on G.T. Road, were injured due to a blast in the compressor room. According to the police and hospital sources, the two employees were working in the compressor room when the blast occurred due to short circuit. The injured were Saeed Ahmed, Zaheer Abbas, Amir Shahzad, Mohammad Adnan, Mohammad Banars and Mohammad Riaz.

They were shifted to different hospitals from where Mohammad Adnan was referred to the district headquarters hospital Rawalpindi. In the second incident, six people were injured during a clash between two groups over a dispute of Rs2,800. — Correspondent

11 held for ‘gambling’

ATTOCK, Sept 7: The Attock city police said they have arrested 11 persons on the charge of gambling, and recovered over Rs0.7 million stake amount from their possession.

The arrests and the recovery were made during a raid at a den, said police spokesman Malik Javed in a statement.

He said a police team led by SHO Inspector Mohammad Khan conducted the raid at the den that was being run under the alleged supervision of Syed Shujaat Hussain alias Shahda Shah. Besides Mr Shah, the other arrested persons were identified as Shahda Shah, Ishfaq Ahmed, Mohammad Zaman, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Shabir, Liaquat Ali, Adnan Ahmed, Mehboob Elahi, Afzal Iqbal, Munir Ahmed and Sher Khan. — Correspondent