BAHAWALNAGAR: Several houses and hundreds of acres of standing wheat crop were inundated by an 80-foot wide breach near Chak 144/6R canal.

The affected people allege that delay in filling the breach which occurred on Wednesday night because of weakening canal banks has caused them huge financial loss. Locals said they timely informed the irrigation officials and the local administration but no one responded. They said they tried to plug the breach on their own but in vain.

The breach was initially less than 20 feet wide, they said, but the gushing water widened it to 80 feet within hours. They alleged that the irrigation officials started filling the breach around 11am on Thursday. Until then, the residents said, the water had ruined more than 500 acres of standing wheat crop as well as several mud houses, causing them a huge financial loss.

Chaudhry Sarwar, Sabir Hussain and others said weakened canal banks resulted in a breach and it was the second incident within three months. The irrigation officials who were appointed to look after the canal banks mostly worked at the residences of the officers, they added.

Irrigation overseer Hafiz Zeeshan and SDO Pervez Akhtar did not attend calls. An irrigation official said that due to a lack of funds, the department did not have its own machinery and hiring heavy machinery was a time-taking process which often caused delays.

WIFE’S MURDER: A man who called police and claimed that armed robbers had shot dead his pregnant wife for resisting a robbery attempt on Wednesday night, turned out to be the killer.

Minchinabad SHO Ghulam Shabbir Shah told Dawn that on Wednesday night, Babar Ali of Mauza Khair Shah called police for help and said that armed robbers had shot dead his wife Zahida while they were on their way to get medicine.

The SHO said the police team reached the crime scene, collected evidence and started investigation. He said Ali gave contradictory statements to police about the incident. They said that on suspicion, police arrested Ali and contacted the victim’s parents.

The victim’s mother, Sajida Bibi, informed police about Ali’s relationship with another woman and suspected his role in the murder, he added.

The SHO further said that in the light of Sajida Bibi’s statement, they again interrogated Ali who confessed to shooting his wife Zahida, a mother of two, with the help of his relative Mushtaq. He said Ali told police that he wanted to contract a second marriage but Zahida opposed him, therefore he decided to kill her.

Mr Shah claimed that police had solved the murder case within a few hours and arrested Mushtaq and seized the murder weapon from his custody.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2022