SUKKUR: Three youths were killed when the car they were travelling in collided with a container-mounted long vehicle near Jamra stop along the Sukkur-Shikarpur section of the National Highway on late Monday night.

Personnel of the Lakhi Ghulam Shah police station and Rescue 1122 retrieved the bodies from the badly smashed car and transported them to a hospital for legal formalities.

The victims were identified as 28-year-old Akhtar, son of Mohammad Ramzan Veesar; 24-year-old Javed, son of Ghanwar; and 27-year-old Hakim, son of Lal Bakhsh.

Akhtar was an employee of the agriculture department whereas Javed and Hakim were tailors by profession, the police said, adding that they all were residents of Shikarpur.

They said the victims were returning home from Sukkur when they met with the accident.

The trailer driver was caught by onlookers and handed over to the police.

Families of kidnap victims receive ransom calls

Families of three missing youths on Tuesday received calls from their kidnappers, who demanded hefty amounts in ransom for their release.

Two of the youths, Zeeshan Channa and Abdul Rehman Bhagat, were kidnapped from the Sultankot area of Shikarpur a couple of days back whereas the third man, Mohsin Junejo had gone missing from near Shikarpur city eight days ago.

One caller, introducing himself as member of a dacoit gang, demanded Rs10.5m for the release of Mohsin. The other callers, claiming to be members of two different gangs, demanded Rs5m for the release of Zeeshan and a same amount for the release of Abdul Rehman.

Hostage freed

A man, Arif Malik, who was abducted by dacoits five days ago, was set free on Tuesday ostensibly after payment of ransom.

Malik had gone missing while travelling along the Ghouspur link road and it was later known that he had been kept in a hideout of a gang in the riverine area falling within the jurisdiction of the Jamal police station of Tangwani town in Kandhkot-Kashmore district.

Soon after his safe return home, a team of local police visited Malik’s home for a photo session and later, speaking to the media, claimed that they had safely rescued him after an encounter with his kidnappers.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2024