KOHAT: Drug smugglers killed a watchman of the wildlife department and injured another in Mangara Safari park here on Monday.

The smugglers were carrying hashish through the unfrequented route connected to Darra Adamkhel tribal subdivision. When they were asked to stop they started firing and killed watchman, Vaqar ul Haq, and injured another named Nassem Shah.

The police reached the scene and arrested one of the smugglers, Shahid Khan, along with the weapon. However, his two accomplices managed to escape. The police shifted the dead and the injured to the KDA teaching hospital.

The arrested accused told the police that he along with Sajid and Abdullah were smuggling hashish through the park.

EMPLOYEES SEEK SALARIES: The sanitation and water supply to the Kohat city have been affected following go-slow policy adopted by the staff after nonpayment of two months salaries.

The employees of Water Supply and Sanitation Company, tehsil municipal administration and Kohat Development Authority have warned of completely blocking all the services if they were not paid salaries of two months with allowances immediately.

However, the employees of tehsil municipal administration withdrew their warning after holding talks with the administration on Monday.

WSSC chief executive officer, Arif Rauf, said the problem had risen due to shortage of funds with the departments. He said the release of funds had been delayed unnecessarily by the local government and he had written to the secretary local government about severity of the problem.

ARMS SMUGGLING BID FOILED: The police seized a huge cache of arms being smuggled from the gun manufacturing tribal subdivision of Darra Adamkhel to down country and arrested two carriers at the Kohat Friendship Tunnel toll plaza on Monday.

ASP Mohammad Nabeel Khokhar told a press conference that district police officer Wahid Mehmood on a tip-off deployed a contingent of police headed by SHO Riaz Shaheed police station Asif Mehmood near the Kohat Friendship Tunnel toll plaza on the Indus Highway. They stopped a car and upon checking of its secret cavities recovered 20 automatic pistols and 200,000 cartridges.

The smugglers, Qamar Zaman from Lakki Marwat and Mohammad Ilyas Afridi of Darra Adamkhel, were arrested.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2019