BAHAWALPUR: The Saddar police on Sunday booked 25 people under the Maintenance Public Ordinance (MPO) for raising slogans against the government during a rally in support of Gaza.

The rally was brought out by a group the other day near the Daewoo Bus Terminal on the Ahmedpur East Road.

In the first information report, police nominated four persons, Naveed, Sherdil, Muhammad Asif and Saifullah, while others remained unidentified..

FIRE: Wheat crop on an area of five acres was reduced to ashes near the Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park (QASP).

According to Rescue 1122, three fire engines along with an ambulance were sent to the fields when an emergency call was received. The firefighters, after hours long operation, controlled the fire but by then the wheat crop on the five acres area had already been burnt, causing a heavy loss to a farmer. According to rescuers, the cause of the fire was a harvester whose engine had caught fire when it was working in the field.

Meanwhile, three passengers were seriously injured when their bus hit a tractor-trolley in Yazman city. The injured were shifted to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Yazman.

SUSPENDED: The federal government has suspended the regional manager of the Utility Stores Corporation, Bahawalpur, Malik Saeed Arain, along with the managers of five other regions of the country on public complaints.

An announcement in this regard was made by Federal Minister for Industries and Production Rana Tanveer Hussain. The suspended regional managers included those of Islamabad, Faisalabad and Peshawar.

After the suspension of the regional managers, the minister ordered an inquiry into the charges against them and issued directions for its completion within a period of seven days. The mobile phone of Malik Saeed Arain was switched off when this correspondent tried to contact him.

BAILED: Anti-terrorism court Multan judge Zulfiqar Ali accepted bail petitions of four accused in the FIA officials torture case of Mian Channu.

Those bailed were identified as Muhammad Safdar, Muhammad Kashif, Muhammad Jarar and Muhammad Shafqat who were asked to deposit Rs100,000 surety bonds each. Earlier, 15 accused in the same case were already released on bail.

It may be recalled that a mob had attacked and tortured the FIA officials in Mian Channu last month for arresting a wanted man of their clan.

ARRESTED: The supervisory staff at the Government Graduate College Lodhran caught one Rashid Ali who had appeared in the 9th class exam in place of the real candidate Asghar Ali. The police later arrested Asghar too.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2024