DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The city police here on Monday booked 300 Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl workers, including Maulana Obaidur Rehman, the brother of party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the party’s district general secretary and general secretary of the bar association, over violation of the rally ban.

A protest demonstration led by Obaidur Rehman was held in front of the Dera Press Club on Sunday against the arrest of JUI-F chief of Paharpur tehsil Musa Khan Baloch by NAB and filing of cases against 150 party workers by the district administration.

Following the protest, the district administration had imposed the Section 144.

The city police registered the case under Section 188 of PPC.

JUI-F Dera general secretary Advocate Chaudhry Ashfaq, Qari Ijaz Farooqi, Ahmad Ali Sheikh, district bar association general secretary Akhtar Saeed Marwat Advocate, Amir Mohammad Khan, Qari Amin, Sharif Chauhan and JUI-F finance secretary Haji Abdullahh are among those booked.

COVID TESTS: Dera deputy commissioner Mohammad Umair has said 213 tests of coronavirus are being done daily across the division to keep a check on the pandemic. He said 169 samples were being taken in Dera Ismail Khan, 23 in Tank and 21 in South Waziristan tribal district.

Talking to mediapersons, he said a total of 1,360 tests had so far been done in Dera, out of which, 13 were positive, 865 negative, nine non-conclusive and 473 were still pending.

In Tank district, 281 tests were done with no positive case, 238 were negative, seven non-conclusive and results of 36 were awaited.

In South Waziristan, of the 147 samples obtained, 128 proved negative and results of 19 were awaited. No positive case was found. He said it was being ensured that educational institutions implemented the Covid-19-induced SOPs.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2020