MARDAN: Poisonous gas killed three labourers working inside a well in Katlang tehsil here on Monday.

Officials of Katlang police station and local people told Dawn that the labourers were cleaning the well in Pirano Banda Shamozai area.

They said one of the labourers climbed down the well to repair a faulty power generator, but fell unconscious and lost contact with his colleagues standing outside the well.

The officials said his fellow labourers also went into the well to save him but they were also trapped there.

Officials of Rescue-1122 and residents of the nearby locality rushed to the spot after getting information about the incident and started efforts to rescue the labourers.

The officials said two labourers were pulled out dead while the third one died at the hospital.

The victims were identified as Zahid, 30, Sahib Shah, 40, and Murad, 28, residents of Pirano Banda, Karkany and Zareef Abad localities of the district.

The police confirmed that poisonous gas caused their death and registered a case into the incident.

ACTION AGAINST CORRUPT OFFICIALS: Provincial minister for local government Inayatullah Khan has said officials involved in irregularities in Mardan Development Authority during the last government would be taken to task.

He was addressing as chief guest the oath-taking ceremony of office-bearers of Sheikh Maltoon Town Welfare Organisation here on Monday.

The minister said that the provincial government would make Shaikh Maltoon as model town and remove reservations of its residents.

“We have also been taking measures to develop other towns in the province to provide people basic necessities of life to people,” he said. The minister lamented that residents of various towns constructed in parts of KP had been facing many problems.