MANSEHRA: A tourist from Lahore was killed after a landslide struck his car on the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road in Kawai area of Kaghan valley here on Sunday.

The family of the deceased, Mohammad Saram was on their way back home after visiting Kaghan valley when a landslide detached from a mountain hit their car.

A Rescue 1122 team shifted the body to Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, Balakot.

Meanwhile, assailants killed a man over a land dispute in Mera Amjad Ali area.

The police said the slain, Mohammad Khalid, was working on a disputed piece of land when Mohammad Asif and his brothers, Mohammad Faizan and Mohammad Saeed showed up and opened fire, leaving him seriously injured.

The injured was rushed to a nearby health facility where doctors pronounced him dead.

The police registered a case and started making raids to arrest the accused, who managed to escape.

TREE PLANTATION: Kaghan Development Authority on Sunday launched a tree plantation drive in the valley.

Authority’s chairman Aimal Zaman Khan, director general Tariq Khan and assistant director Assad Shahzad were also present at the inaugural ceremony held in Naran.

On the occasion, Mr Zaman told reporters that over 5,000 saplings of blue pine and other species of alpine would be planted in Battakundi, Paras and Naran areas along the Kunhar River.

“We have been doing our best to protect the valley’s pleasant environment,” Mr Zaman said. He said tree plantation drive would help stop soil erosion along the river and streams and landslides in hilly parts of the valley.

RECOVERED: The police have recovered a two-year-old girl abducted from Karachi and arrested her uncle in Oghi.

“Asia Bibi was abducted by her father with the help of his brother from Karachi and shifted here,” SHO Oghi police Asim Bukhari told reporters on Sunday.

He said the minor had been handed over to her mother, who had come here from Karachi to receive her.

Mr Bukhari said Mohammad Ayaz had got married to a woman in Karachi some three years ago and the couple got separated later on. “The girl was living with her mother, and Ayaz with the help of his brother, Baz Mohammad abducted her from Korangi area of Karachi on October 15, and shifted her here,” he said.

In another incident, the police recovered a girl, 14, kidnapped by two men when she was on way back home from school in Shinkiari area the other day.

The police said an Afghan national, Ahsanullah and his accomplice had kidnapped the girl and shifted her to an unknown location. The police raided the location on a tip-off and recovered her.

The teenager, in her statement before the police, said her captors wanted to sell her to a group.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2023