TOBA TEK SINGH: An abductor of a nine-year-old girl was criticality wounded on Wednesday allegedly when his accomplices opened fire on a team of Gojra city police to free the suspect.

District police spokesperson Attaullah told reporters suspect Sabir Masih, who sold ice lollies on bicycle, had allegedly kidnapped a minor girl, Seerat Fatima, of Chak 298-JB, some 10 days ago.

The girl’s parents reported the matter to Gojra city police.

The spokesperson said that after abducting the girl, the suspect disappeared from his native village, Chak 369-JB, and Gojra city police continued raiding the house of his relatives and friends.

Finally, the police recovered the girl from the house of a relative of the suspect at Kassowal from where he was also arrested.

The suspect told police that after abducting her he took the girl to different cities and finally kept her at a relative’s house at Kassowal.

Mr Attaullah said on Wednesday the police were taking the suspect to a place to arrest his accomplice, when four unidentified men opened fire on the policemen near Chak 297-JB, in a bid to free the suspect.

He claimed that the police party retaliated and a crossfire ensued during which the suspect was seriously injured, while no policeman got hurt.

The injured suspect was shifted to the Gojra Tehsil Headquarters Hospital where doctors referred him to the Allied Hospital, Faisalabad. His condition was stated to be critical.

The police were conducting raids to arrest the attackers who had managed to escape.

DEMAND: Pakistan’s national hockey team’s former captain, Rashidul Hasan, has demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan to use his powers as Pakistan Hockey Federation chief patron and remove the PHF president and secretary from their offices “to bring back the golden era of hockey in the country”.

Talking to the media at his residence at Gojra on Wednesday, the hockey hero appreciated the premier’s interest in sports and his wish to promote hockey in the country.

He also urged Mr Khan to make public the report of the Senate’s sports standing committee in which names of those had been pointed out who harmed the PHF and hockey game.

He said it was a great tragedy that Pakistan’s hockey team could not even qualify take for the Tokyo Olympics.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2021