BAHAWALPUR: Two sanitary workers were asphyxiated and as many others fell unconscious because of poisonous gasses while cleaning a sewage well at Chak 101/DB on Tailwala road near Yazman, about 30kms from here on Wednesday.

According to District Emergency officer (DEO) Baqir Hussain, four sanitary workers were hired to clean a sewage well at the village.

He said when the workers went down the well and were about to start cleaning it, all of them fell unconscious because of poisonous gasses accumulating there.

As the villagers got no response from the workers, they immediately called Rescue 1122 helpline and a team of rescuers arrived there.

The rescuers pulled the workers out of the well, finding two of them -- Waris Ali and Nadeem -- dead. The two others, Rafaqat Ali and Abdul Rehman, who were unconscious, were shifted to Yazman Tehsil Headquarters Hospital.

As per the doctors at the THQ hospital, Abdul Rehman was stated to be stable, while Rafaqat was shifted to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH) because of his serious condition.

As per district police spokesperson Jam Sajid, legal action will be taken against those who had hired the workers.

ARRESTED: Punjab wildlife department’s field staff claimed to have arrested five persons for illegally hunting three Chinkara deer in the Cholistan desert area of Soorian, over 200kms from here on Tuesday night.

Wildlife Assistant Director Ibrar Ahmed, who led the team that made the arrests, told Dawn by phone that on a tip off the department’s officials tracked down the five illegal hunters and recovered from them three slaughtered deer.

The arrested suspects were identified as Ahmad Shah, Sadruddin, Jamil Gopang, Javed Allauddin and Faiz Muhammad, he said.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2021