SHANGLA: The people of Lilonai union council protested construction of a veterinary hospital on a piece of land in Alpuri they claim to have been reserved for offering funeral prayers.

The protesters forced the information minister Shaukat Yousafzai to intervene and announce that the project would be shifted to Shahpur union council.

Assistant commissioner, Alpuri, Fidaul Karim told Dawn on contact that during the foundation laying ceremony of the veterinary hospital the other day, a mob led by local influential people first asked the officials of works department and the project contractor to stop the work, and when they did not oblige, the protesters halted the work forcibly.

Mr Karim said to diffuse the situation he along police held a jirga with the protest leaders, but the meeting ended without any positive outcome. Later, he said he went to the site to get the work on the building started, but the people put up strong resistance.

The assistant commissioner said he was forced to file an FIR against a former district councillor and some lawyers for instigating the protesters against the project.

However, the situation was only diffused when the information minister intervened and asked local administration to withdraw the FIRs registered against the protest leaders.

HONOUR KILLING: A woman was killed and a man injured in the name of honour in Kormang area of Bisham on Monday.

A police official told Dawn that a woman was shot dead by unidentified men in Poshah area of Kormang over suspicion of having illicit relation with a man, who was later attacked and injured in Bisham Bazaar. The police arrested an accused from the spot along with a pistol and registered a case against him.

The body of the woman was shifted to the district headquarters hospital, Alpuri, for autopsy.

However, the police have yet to lodge an FIR in the case.

Meanwhile, two motorcyclists were critically injured when they met an accident on Karakoram Highway near Bisham on Monday.

Both the injured, hailing from Kohistan, were travelling to Bisham from their native district.

They were taken to the tehsil headquarters hospital, Bisham, wherefrom they were referred to Saidu Teaching Hospital in Swat in critical condition.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2019