LOWER DIR: Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) intensified its crackdown on gas thieves in Lower Dir district on Monday, dismantling a 4,500-meter illegal pipeline and 440 connections taken from it.

Sources told Dawn that a special team led by SNGPL regional manager Akif Ahmad Noor detected the pipeline, supplying gas to Damamo, Awlia Banda, Bandagai, Tangi, Nakhtaro, Koto and Shagai villages.

The team also got registered cases against the gas thieves in various police stations.

According to officials, a total of 36 million cubic feet of illegal gas was being stolen, causing a huge loss to the national kitty. They said the crackdown would continue on gas thieves.

Meanwhile, talking to reporters in Timergara, a number of gas consumers complained SNGPL had sent them exorbitant bills last month.

They said they had started using LPG cylinders instead of piped gas as they were unable to pay inflated bills.

An LPG distributor told this reporter that gas consumers preferred to buy cylinders. He said LPG was being sold at Rs320 per kilogramme and its sale had picked during the last week.

EID PACKAGES: Shakil Shaheed Development Organisation (SSDO), a non-profit body, on Monday distributed Eid food packages among 100 orphans and poor families in Talash area. SSDO founder Peer Imtiaz Ahmad distributed the packages each containing wheat flour, rice, ghee and sugar.

On the occasion, he said his organisation had been distributing such packages with financial support of overseas for last 10 years. He said dozens of children were also given cash amounts on the occasion.

PHD COMPLETED: Dr Ijazul Haq from Shalkanai, a small village in Khall area, completed his PhD from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

Talking to reporters, he said the title of his research was Artificial Intelligence, especially Pashto natural language processing’, on which he published several thesis in reputable journals.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2024