SWABI: Incidents of setting the harvested wheat crop on fire were reported from different areas of Swabi on Wednesday.

Rescue 1122 and police officials recalled that such incidents also occurred last year. They said in some cases, children set the crop on fire. They said enmities might also have been behind such incidents.

Unknown persons set on fire the harvested wheat crop of a farmer in Babu village of Ismaila after it had been collected for threshing.

Immediately after the fire broke out, Raees Khan informed Rescue 1122, which dispatched a firefighting crew to the spot to put out the blaze. However, the team only managed to save the harvested crop lying in nearby fields.

Raees said he had lost all of his grain, leaving nothing to feed his family till the next crop. He said unidentified persons put his crop on fire.

Similarly, such incidents were also reported from three areas of Topi and from Bamkhel village of Swabi tehsil, incurring heavy losses on poor farmers.

BODY RECOVERED: The body of an Afghan national, Shabbir Ahmed, 20, who drowned in the River Indus on Tuesday, was recovered from Kund Park area and handed over to the family.

Also, Abidur Rehman of Sheraghund village was seriously injured when his rivals opened fire on him.

Meanwhile, three persons, including an Afghan, were injured in separate road accidents on Wednesday, the police reported.

CONFERENCE: The All-Party Conference convened by Awami National Party in Islamabad on May 2 will focus on how to defuse the current volatile political situation and stamp out the menace of terrorism.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, ANP’s former Swabi general secretary Tamazan Khan said party’s central vice-president Ameer Haider Khan Hoti had held a meeting with local leaders in Shahmansoor on Tuesday, declaring that PTI won’t be invited to the conference because it had pushed the county deep into political and economic turmoil during its government.

He said Mr Hoti was hopeful that the moot would achieve its objectives as it was responsibility of political leaders to formulate a joint strategy to counter terrorism and end political polarisation. He said Mr Hoti also stressed the need for bringing back into the party fold the annoyed workers and leaders.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2023