BAHAWALPUR: A girl child was allegedly raped by a man in the fields of Basti Dadpotra near Wahi Hussain in the limits of Musafir Khana Police Station of Bahawalpur.

According to first information report (FIR) registered on complaint victim the 10-year-old girl’s father, the victim went outside her house and the suspect lured her to the nearby fields where he raped her. The suspect managed to flee after committing the crime.

The victim was sent to the hospital for medical examination while the police registered the case against him. The officials said that a hunt for the suspect’s arrest was going on.

MURDER MYSTERY: Saddar Police Burewala in Vehari district solved the mystery of a blind murder of a taxi driver and arrested three alleged killers.

According to Vehari police spokesperson Adnan Tariq, the suspects, Shehzad, Mustafa and Hassan, had hired Sajid’s taxi on the night of April 27, 2025 in the guise of passengers to travel from Burewala to Vehari. On their way near Chak 515/EB, the alleged killers snatched his taxi and shot Sajid Mahmood dead on resistance.

Saddar police Burewala on the complaint of deceased’s nephew, Rizwan Farooq, had registered an FIR.

The investigation team conducted raids in Faisalabad, Okara, Jaranwala and Lahore, traced the suspects and arrested them. The police also recovered weapon from their possession.

The taxi car of the deceased was handed over to his children.

SOUTH PUNJAB: Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) South Punjab Fuad Hashim Rabbani said Rs309bn had been allocated for 1,006 projects in south Punjab in this fiscal year.

He added the budget has been increased by Rs81bn compared to last year while Rs43 billion had already been released for uplift projects.

He expressed these views during a meeting with Bahawalpur Commissioner Musarrat Jabeen in his office. The meeting decided to implement an effective mechanism to accelerate the pace of work on development projects.

According to an official handout, Mr Rabbani emphasized that all projects must be completed within their stipulated timeline. He directed the officers to conduct field visits to assess the quality and progress of work and to hold weekly meetings to remove any obstacles to the projects’ execution.

The officer instructed to expedite the restoration of historical forts in Cholistan to their original state and to give special focus to ecotourism. He proposed adding new events to the Cholistan Jeep Rally during next year to enhance public interest.

The Commissioner briefed the additional chief secretary on the progress of the ongoing projects in Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar and Rahim Yar Khan.

SANITATION: The Bahawalpur Waste Management Company (BWMC) has outsourced sanitation work in all the 14 tehsils of Bahawalpur division.

This was told in a briefing by BWMC Chief Executive Officer Muhammad Naeem Akhtar to Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Malik Zaheer Iqbal Channar in a meeting here. He claimed that the sanitation work was presently being carried out successfully in all the tehsils.

On the occasion, Mr Channar issued directions for improving the sanitation standards and formation of surveillance teams to conduct surprise visits to check the sanitation work in the rural and urban areas.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2025