MANSEHRA: The residents of Torghar on Monday complained they had been deprived of healthcare facilities as the District Headquarters Hospital couldn’t be constructed even after six years of its groundbreaking, and the region’s only basic health unit had been shifted from a spacious building to a single-room in Judbah.

“The local BHU remained functional for years in a multi-room building, but the health department has shifted it to a small facility, depriving patients of essential healthcare services,” Syed Ajmal Shah Advocate, a local resident, told reporters.

Led by Mr Shah, a group of locals denounced the shifting of BHU Judbah from its multi-room premises to the tehsil municipal administration’s offices.

“It has been 14 years since this erstwhile tribal belt was given the status of a settled district in 2011, but we are still deprived of adequate health, education and other basic services,” he added.

Mr Shah said the government had laid the foundation stone of 200-bed DHQ Hospital in 2019, but the project was yet to be completed due to shortage of funds.

“The hospital was scheduled to be completed in 2021 but almost half of work remains unfinished,” he said.

Another local, Rubnawaz Yusufzai, recalled a recent tragic incident where a man who fell from the mountains was rushed to the BHU, but a medical technician referred him to another facility in the Hazara division. The injured succumbed to his wounds before reaching the hospital.

ARMS SEIZED: The police on Monday seized a cache of arms being smuggled from Peshawar to Oghi.

SHO Lari Adda police Faisal Khalil told reporters that a police party led by him raided a place in the Lari Adda area on a tip-off and seized two 12-bore repeaters, 17 pistols of 32-bore, and 3,200 cartridges.

However, he said the smuggler managed to flee.

“We have booked the arms smuggler, identified as Amjad Khan of Oghi, under the relevant sections of law and launched raids for his arrest,” Mr Khalil added.

The SHO said the suspect transported the weapons in a bag in a passenger wagon from Peshawar.

He said the police had launched a crackdown on outlaws and drug peddlers on the directives of district police officer Shafiullah Khan Gandapur, during which dozens of offenders had been arrested.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2025