KARAK: A large number of trees were gutted when unknown miscreants set on fire the hilly forests of Miranday and Petao in Banda Daud Shah tehsil.

The residents said here on Sunday that a large portion of the hilly forests had been damaged. They claimed that both the hills also had different species of birds and other wildlife. They demanded the local administration to send teams of Rescue 1122 to the area to extinguish the fire.

They said two weeks ago unknown persons had lit fire in the forest of Petao Ghar which the people extinguished on self-help basis. However, this time the fire had spread to a vast area which the people could not extinguish.

KILLED: A teenage boy was killed and his father sustained critical injuries in a road accident on Shah Saleem road in Takht-i-Nusrati tehsil.

Police sources said here on Sunday that Khalid Iqbal, 17, and his father Atlas Khan, residents of Namarkhan Banda in Takht-i-Nusrati were going on their motorcycle when it collided with a car.

As a result, Kahlid and his father received critical injuries. They were taken to the tehsil headquarters hospital where Iqbal died while his father was referred to a hospital in Peshawar.

Anwar Kamal, brother of Atlas, has registered an FIR of the incident against an unidentified car driver.

LB POLLS WELCOMED: Social welfare organisations here have welcomed the government’s decision to hold local body elections in September and resolved that their representatives would contest the elections.

This was decided in a meeting held here on Sunday with district president of Water Users Group, a network of social organisations, Maulana Waheed Shah in the chair.

JUI-S MEETING: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani has said that secular forces wanted establishment of a society in Pakistan based on Western lifestyle, but the country’s progress is attached with the establishment of an Islamic society.

He was addressing a public gathering here on Sunday at Kanda area of Karak where a political family of Dr Daraz Khattak joined JUI-S.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2021