BAHAWALPUR: The Cantonment police registered a case on Thursday against the regional manager of a life insurance company and 14 other employees, including four women, for allegedly embezzling Rs10 million from the people in the name of investment.

According to Station House Officer Tasaddaq Abbas, complainant Obaidur Rehman and others in their first information report (FIR) lodged with the police stated they invested their money in the Jubilee Life Insurance after regional manager Syed Asim Ali Kazmi pledged them a four-time return against their amounts in a year.

According to complainants, when they approached him for profit after the passage of one year, the regional manager did not pay them any amount and later fled his house with his family members. Other employees were also missing from their houses.

The police registered an FIR against the suspects under sections 406 (Punishment for criminal breach of trust) , 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly Inducing delivery of property), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (Using as genuine a forged document) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Those nominated in the case are Asim Ali Kazmi, manager Quratul Ain, accountant Ashfaq Ahmed, Ali Imran Kazmi, Shakir Arif Shakir, Muhammad Arif, Waseem Bari, Sohail, Zulqarnain, Samina, alias Mona, Wajeaha, Sobia Zafar Iqbal and Ali Raza Shamsi. Of them, police said, Ashfaq and Ali Kazmi had been arrested while police were after the others.

MOURNING: The students of the Desert Rangers School and College, led by Principal retired Col Hashmi, teachers and Commandant Brigadier Riazul Hassan, offered prayers on Thursday on the second day of a national mourning for the victims of the Peshawar Army Public School attack.

A large number of Quaid-i-Azam Medical College (QAMC) students, led by Principal Prof Dr Haroon Khursheed Pasha, and his staff members, also took out a procession to condemn the school terrorism and took round of the college campus and nearby roads. Lady health workers assembled at the DCO Chowk and demonstrated to condemn the killing of schoolchildren in Peshawar by terrorists.

On behalf of the Pakistan Army, Cantonment Board executive officer Rao Shahid Iqbal organised candlelight vigils at Noor Mahal Check Post, Fowara Chowk and Allahwala Chowk in Bahawalpur.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2014