GUJRAT: A Norwegian national of Pakistani origin has been missing for more than a week.

On Sept 26, Shahzad Ahmed Bhatti, of Deona Mandi, reported to the Rehmania police that his nephew, Arfan Qadeer Bhatti, went to drop off his children at school. He afterwards texted Bhatti to pick up the children from school and drop them off at home.

Bhatti did so, but when he called Arfan, he did not reply. He stated that Arfan came to Gujrat with his three children in June, while his siblings and mother remained in Norway.

They assumed Arfan had fled elsewhere in order to avoid his arrest in connection with a terror case in Norway.

On Sept 24, Norwegian police filed international arrest warrants for Arfan in connection with a gunshot at a homosexual pub in Oslo in June of this year. One suspect has already been arrested.

According to Norwegian media, Arfan is being held by a law enforcement agency in Pakistan. Ghazanfar Shah, district police officer, declined to comment.

Sand filling: The local authorities on Tuesday launched sand filling underneath a concrete road whose slabs caved in due to leakage in the sewerage pipeline along Gujrat-Jalalpur Jattan Road.

Officials of Gujrat Municipal Corporation, public health engineering and highways departments in a joint operation launched the earth filling through throwing the sand under the road.

They said rectification of other such points where road is about to be caved in, had been planned, though this is a temporary arrangement as huge funds are required for revamping entire sewerage pipeline.

The traffic continued to ply along the route where traffic sign boards were yet to be displayed as a precaution for the motorists.

The sewerage line had been laid along the route back in 2006-07 but faults started to appear in that line within a year and since then the condition is deteriorating, local traders and residents of area said.

Gujrat Deputy Commissioner Amer Shahzad Kang and MC Administrator Aurangzeb Sidhu inspected the damaged position on Tuesday after which a meeting of engineers was convened.

The deputy commissioner said the estimated cost of revamp of the sewerage line along Jalalpur Jattan Road was about Rs550 million and the proposal was being sent to the Punjab government for the approval and allocation of funds for the scheme.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2022