KOHAT: The police on Wednesday arrested two persons who with the connivance of the officials of social welfare department and NGOs had been selling food aid meant for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the open market, sources said.

The police seized big quantities of cooking oil, flour and pulses in a raid from a warehouse in Shaheedano Banda in Jarma area and arrested two suspects Abdul Malik and Fazal Wahab.

The recovered items include 500 bags of flour, 5,420 kilogrammes of pulses packed in 1,500 bags and 2,120 litres of cooking oil.

The district police officer had directed the Jarma police to arrest those involved in selling the food aid.

The police claimed that during preliminary interrogation the suspects had divulged that they also used to export the food

and other items to Afghanistan.

Sources said that the officials of social welfare department and different NGOs, who had established two distribution points, had been selling the items instead of distributing them among the displaced tribesmen from Khyber, Orakzai and Waziristan tribal agencies.

They said that several NGOs from Kohat and Peshawar had shifted their operations to Jarma area after the arrival of a large number of displaced people, while an excess quantity of food and utensils were brought there for distribution.

LAID TO REST: A pilot of the unfortunate MI-17 helicopter, which had crashed in the Naltar valley in Gilgit a few days ago, was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard with full military honours here on Wednesday.

Maj Altamash had died along with six other people, including another army officer and two ambassadors.

The body of Maj Altamash was brought from Islamabad on Wednesday. Director General Army Aviation Rashid Dar accompanied the coffin.

The funeral held in Chakarkot was attended by Base Commander, Kohat, Commodore Abdullah Taheedi, Brig Saulat,

Col Nadeem and a large number of police, army and PAF officers and jawans.

Maj Altamash had joined the Pakistan Army in 2002 as lieutenant and the army aviation in 2008 and was considered as one of the best pilots.

He left behind a widow and seven years old son to mourn his death.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2015

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