GUJRANWALA: City division police arrested 83 people for flying kites and recovered 9,000 kites, 145 reels, 400 chemical twine rolls and 20 firecrackers during a crackdown on kite flyers.

This was claimed by City Superintendent of Police (SP) Tariq Mahmood during a press conference on Wednesday.

The SP said the crackdown was conducted on the directions of City Police Officer (CPO) Waqas Nazir. Police conducted raids in several areas of the city and arrested 83 people for flying kites and cases were registered against 81 under the kite flying act.

He said that under the kite flying act, flying kites and the sale or purchase of associated material was prohibited by the government. Strict action had been ordered by the CPO to save lives of citizens.

District police arrested a large number of kite flyers and recovered 13,000 kites, 600 reels of chemical string and chemical twine across the district.

SALARIES: The Punjab government released funds to pay salaries to employees and pensioners of the Gujranwala Municipal Cooperation (MC) on Wednesday.

Thousands of MC employees were deprived of their salaries, while more than 2,000 pensioners were awaiting their dues.

Labour unions had reminded the Punjab government and the finance department to release funds.

ARRESTED: Gujranwala circle of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested four proclaimed offenders over their alleged involvement in human trafficking.

FIA teams headed by inspectors Waqar Awan and Khizar Hayat conducted raids in Wazirabad and Nowshera Virkan and arrested Umer, Abid Husain, Muhammad Rasheed and Kashif. The suspects were wanted by the FIA since 2015.

FIA Deputy Director Khalid Anees told Dawn the suspects were involved in human trafficking and sent people illegally to Iran, Greece and Turkey.

OVERPRICING: The district administration accelerated its operation against overpricing and arrested several people during an inspection conducted in various tehsils on Wednesday.

On the directions of Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Amir Jan, Wazirabad Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Anwar Baryar conducted 13 raids against shopkeepers for overpricing. He also inspected several shops and fined Rs5,000 each to two of them.

Nowshera Virkan AC Ahsanullah Kidar conducted eight raids in the tehsil and arrested three shopkeepers for overcharging. He also imposed a fine of Rs6,000 on some shopkeepers.

City AC Adnan Shahzad fined two butchers Rs10,000 each for overcharging customers. He also found two milkmen charging higher than the control rate, and fined them Rs5,000 each.

Sadder AC Rana Jamil registered a case against a shopkeeper.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2017