BAHAWALPUR: A man who was brutally tortured by nine suspects, who had chopped off his ears and fractured his arms and legs allegedly over an “honour” issue, a couple of days back, succumbed to his injuries in a hospital on Saturday.

After his death, the Musafirkhana police converted an earlier FIR (237/23), registered under section 324 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), into a murder case (302 of the PPC) against the nine suspects, on the complaint of the victim’s brother Muhammad Ayyaz.

According to police spokesperson Umar Saleem, the nine nominated suspects, including Faisal and Khalid, suspected that Sajjad Ahmed had relations with one of their female relatives.

In order to take revenge, the armed suspects called Sajjad out of his house on the night of May 2 and subjected him to severe tortured, chopping off his ears and fracturing his arms and legs.

The victim’s ears were chopped off, limbs fractured

The victim was admitted to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

None of the nine suspects, who had fled the scene immediately, could be arrested so far.

The police are waiting for the postmortem examination report for further legal process.

INJURED: As many as 13 passengers were injured, nine of them seriously, when a bus going to Sadiqbad from Lahore overturned near Channigoth, around 70km from here.

According to District Emergency Officer of Rescue 1122 Baqir Hussain, the bus that was packed to the capacity, overturned while overtaking another vehicle.

He said four of the injured passengers who suffered minor injuries were discharged by a Rescue 1122 team at the scene of accident after provision of first aid, while nine others, including two women, Irshad Bibi and Zeenat Bibi, were shifted to Ahmedpur East Tehsil Headquarters Hospital.

A police team reaching the scene was taking action action against the bus driver for alleged negligence and speeding.

PROTEST DEMO: Scores of residents of Yazman on Saturday staged a demonstration outside Bahawalpur Press Club against what they called highhandedness of local police.

The protesters carrying a banner inscribed with allegations against Yazman city police SHO Asim Mustafa, ASI Niaz Ali and Constable Afzal, demanding their immediate transfer.

MINISTER: Federal minister for food security and research Tariq Cheema has expressed satisfaction that the country has produced 27.5 million metric tonnes of wheat this year, while during the previous two years due to floods and other climatic change effects Pakistan was forced to import wheat worth Rs2 billion .

Speaking at Bahawalpur Press Club on Saturday, Mr Cheema said the government fixed the wheat price at 3,900 per maund this year in accordance with the international market prices as the wheat and sugar was being smuggled to Afghanistan and central Asian states from Pakistan.

Mr Cheema parried a question about the allegation leveled by the former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi regarding Rs20 billion “corruption” in the free flour distribution, saying the PML-N leader could himself comment on it.

The minister said he was not against the creation of ‘South Punjab province’, but was a supporter of the restoration of ‘Bahawalpur province’.

He said the government was in contact with some foreign companies for collaboration in the research on cotton and other crops.

He said he wanted to expedite the allotment work of free land to Cholistan residents under the government scheme.

He said that lawmaking was the job of the parliament and Supreme Court was also a product of the enactment of law.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2023