CHARSADDA, Jan 10: Pick-Pocketing in the district is on the rise as it is the sugar-crushing season and the villagers bring gur to the city markets for selling. They, specially the elderly among them, are the easy prey.

On Wednesday, an elderly person, Rehman Gul of Shahbaz Kalli, was brought to district headquarter hospital Charsadda in a very critical condition.

His son said his father had gone to Peshawar for selling gur in the market and some persons, after giving him an intoxicant, emptied his pockets.

He said Rs10,000, the price of his father’s year-long labour, was taken away. “Not only that the amount was lost but the condition of my father is also critical,” he said.—Our Correspondent