LANDI KOTAL: Two persons were killed in a clash between two rival groups in Bara on Thursday, Khasadar officials said.

They said that the incident took place in Meelwat area of Akkakhel where rival groups of Mewa Khan and Sher Badin opened fire on each other when they came face to face. Two persons of Sher Badin group identified as Zakhakhel and Abdul Ameen died on the spot in the cross firing. The latter was a polio supervisor.

Khasadar officials registered a case and have started investigations. They also took one person of Mewa Khan group into custody during a raid on their house.

Meanwhile, custom officials at Torkham border stopped around 70 vehicles loaded with apples from Afghanistan for lack of presenting quarantine certificate at the time of custom clearance.

Transporters and fruit importers said that the vehicles were stranded at the border for nearly three weeks while a major chunk of the imported fruit had rotten. They said that the fruit was picked up from different cities in Afghanistan.

They demanded of the customs officials to give them concession about quarantine certificate as the said document was issued by the chamber of commerce and industries of the city from where the fruit was imported.

They said that most of the Afghan cities had no such chambers.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2018