BAHAWALPUR: The Lodhran Saddar police on Thursday registered an FIR under sections 302 of the Wednesday firing incident, which claimed the lives of four men of two rival groups with no arrest.

According to PRO Bahadur Khan, the FIR under sections 302, 148 and 149 of Pakistan Penal Code registered on the complaint of Tauseefur Rehman, son of deceased Lambardar and chief of Mangla tribe Mallik Mujeeb Maangla, has nominated eight armed motorcyclist attackers Yaseen Baloch, Muhammad Shauqeen Baloch, Imran, Siddique, Asif, Dilshad Ahmed, (along with two unidentified men).

He alleged that the attackers opened firing on his deceased father and his two [sitting] men and hit their companion Dilshad, who also died.

After the firing incident, the attackers managed to flee from the scene.

The PRO told this correspondent by cell phone that the investigation teams were already raiding for the fleeing suspect.

He said bodies after postmortem examination were handed over to families.

IUB STUDENTS: A participating team of four students of Islamia University Bahawalpur (IUB) representing Pakistan was declared winner in the international cultural and arts festival at Sichuan Agricultural University, China, on Thursday.

According to an IUB press release issued here on Thursday, students including Rabia Tahir, Sameera Naseer, Tehmina Kausar and Umar Arshad had earlier received scholarships through an MoU signed between IUB and China’s Sichuan Agricultural University.

The team members participated in the event, where Pakistani cultural dress, traditional jewellery, handicrafts, ‘mehndi’ designs, local dishes and cultural dances were also showcased.

WHEAT CROP: Although the recent rain spell has not affected the wheat crop in the Bahawalpur division so far, it is feared that any further rainfall may cause damage to it.

Dawn learnt that wheat crop is still in the harvesting process in most parts of the division and it remained unaffected with the recent rain that has delayed threshing for about a week or so, provided more rain does not hit the fi elds and weather conditions improve.

Talking to Dawn, Director Agriculture (extension) Bahawalpur Division Hafi z Jamil Ahmed Ghauri says that the rain was scattered in the division areas during the last week and hence all areas are not affected.

He has expressed his satisfaction with the wheat crop condition but saying that there is about 16pc moisture in the crop, which has compelled the farmers to suspend harvesting and threshing for some days.

Mr Ghauri says that about 40pc of the crop was harvested before the rain while about 60pc of wheat is still lying in the fi elds or it is yet to be harvested.

He says that a bumper crop is expected in Bahawalpur division this year with the total production to be 4.5 million metric tonnes with an average production of 38 to 40 maunds per acre yield. He says wheat was cultivated on the area of 2.7m acres in the division.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2024