SIALKOT: Special teams of the agricultural department are conducting workshops to raise awareness to local farmers and growers in Sialkot district’s tehsils - Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur - on how to combat the onslaught by the deadly swarm which may land in the district from other central Punjab districts.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (revenue) Mir Muhammad Nawaz said agriculture department experts were spreading awareness about preventive measures, some technical and others traditional, to avert attacks of locusts on seasonal crops. They said that drum beating and using fire crackers could also be helpful to scare the attacking locusts from fields. He added the district administration has also established a special anti-locusts cell at the DC Office to supervise efforts on raising awareness among the farmers about the pest attack. He said the Sialkot agriculture department has also been put on high alert.

ACCIDENT: Three people, including a couple, were killed in a fatal collision between two motorcycles near village Matta Hariyaan on Chawinda-Zafarwal-Pasrur Road, in Pasrur tehsil on Saturday. According to the police, the speeding motorcycles collided with each other leaving Inam Khan and a couple Iqbal and Razia Bibi dead at the scene. Rescue 1122 shifted bodies to the Pasrur Tehsil Headquarters Civil Hospital for autopsy. Police are investigating into the accident.

OPERATION: The local administration demolished encroachments outside shops, commercial buildings and private hospitals on Commissioner Road on Saturday. Assistant Commissioner Javeria Maqbul supervised the operation.

CASE: Police registered a case against the owner of a local marriage hall for violation of one dish policy in Qila Kalarwala, Pasrur. The case was registered on the report of the Pasrur assistant commissioner. Police have sent accused Saleemullah behind bars. Also, four people kidnapped local trader Abdul Razzaq’s young daughter Mariyam at gunpoint from near her house in Hajipura Sialkot city. Police have registered a case with no arrest.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2020