HARIPUR: A five-member team of Ghazi police would probe the cause of death of a woman and three children and submit a report to the regional police officer within 10 days, officials said here the other day.

According to the police, Nagina Bibi, 26, wife of Wapda employee Sardar Mohammad Shahzad, her sons, Ayan, 5, Hamdan, 3, and niece Hooriya Bibi, 10, died when the room they were sleeping in caught fire on the night of August 28 in Sohbra City Colony of Tarbela Dam due to electric short-circuiting.

While police described the cause of deaths burning-cum-suffocation, the autopsy report indicated suffocation as the room was filled with smoke.

Sardar Shehzad also brushed aside the apprehensions that there was any criminal act involved in the deaths.

But, according to locals, the room from where the bodies were recovered had some visible blood stains on the carpet and the beds the victims were sleeping on had been burnt from the centre rather than the sides.

Frequent police questioning had forced Mr Shehzad to approach RPO Hazara Qazi Jamilur Rehman, accusing the Ghazi police of harassing him. The RPO formed the five member-team headed by DSP Ghazi Shahnawaz Khan.

BOY KILLED: A teenage boy was killed and another injured during festive firing in a remote village of Khanpur the other day. Police said the injured were taken to Pims Islamabad where Mohammad Yasin, 14, was pronounced dead, while condition Allah Ditta was precarious.

The police arrested accused, Mohammad Banaras, after registering case against him.

JAMMERS affect phone service: Residents of several localities around the Haripur Central Jail have complained the jammers installed at the prison have badly affected the mobile service in the localities.

Talking to mediapersons, Imran Khan Alizai and others said the jammers installed in the name of security and restricting the outside contacts of the inmates had infringed upon the fundamental rights of thousands of people.

They said jammers should be restricted to a specific area of the jail. They alleged that frequency of jammers had been increased beyond the desired limit.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2020