TOBA TEK SINGH:The Rail Bazaar police on Monday traced and recovered a young trader from Hyderabad, Sindh, three days after his disappearance.

A police spokesperson said Shafiq, a cloth shop owner at Makki Market, had gone missing on Oct 17 when he left to make a payment to another trader. Police traced his mobile location, which revealed he was in Hyderabad, where he had allegedly fallen victim to a honey trap set by a woman.

Police contacted him through a mediator, warning him of the trap, and a team reached Hyderabad to take him into custody. He was later brought back to Faisalabad and handed over to his family.

ENCOUNTER: A notorious shooter and member of the Gulfam Shah gang was killed on Monday in an encounter with the Madina Town Crime Control Department (CCD) team in Faisalabad.

A CCD official said the team raided Chak Khaddian Warraichan to arrest the outlaw, Sanaullah Pathan. However, Pathan and his accomplices opened fire on the police, prompting retaliatory fire. When the firing ended, Pathan was found dead while his accomplices managed to escape. The official added that Pathan was involved in more than two dozen cases of murder, extortion, and robbery.

ARRESTED: Civil Lines police on Monday arrested a private security company supervisor accused of attempting to set a woman on fire.

Complainant Shazia stated in her first information report registered under Sections 336-B and 511 of the Pakistan Penal Code that she worked for a company supervised by Ali Akbar at a local hotel. She said Akbar repeatedly pressured her to marry him, prompting her to transfer to the company’s branch at the General Bus Stand.

She alleged that Akbar later arrived at her new workplace, poured petrol on her clothes, and tried to set her ablaze, but her colleagues overpowered him and saved her.

ACCIDENT:An underage motorcycle rider and his pillion passenger were killed, while another was critically injured, when their bike was hit by a speeding car near Bhaggi Mosque on Mananwala Road in Mandi Warburton, Nankana Sahib, late on Sunday night.

According to Rescue 1122, the deceased were identified as Abdullah (12) and Muhammad Zain (10), while the injured Armaghan (14) was shifted to the Mananwala THQ Hospital.

WASA:Punjab Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Bilal Yasin said the 30 million gallons per day (MGD) Water Treatment Plant Project, managed by Wasa, Faisalabad, is progressing steadily and will provide clean drinking water to more than 600,000 residents upon completion.

During his visit to the French Project Phase-II site in Makuana, Faisalabad, on Monday, the minister was accompanied by DG Wasa Punjab Tayyab Farid, MD (Faisalabad) Sohail Qadir Cheema, MD Wasa Lahore Ghufran Ahmed, and other officials.

He said the Rs22 billion Surface Water Treatment Plant Project — a collaboration between Wasa Faisalabad, the French Development Agency (AFD), and the Punjab government — would add 30 MGD of potable water to the city’s system, increasing supply by 30 per cent.

The minister described it as a state-of-the-art initiative, unprecedented in Faisalabad’s history, and expressed satisfaction with the progress being supervised by Chinese engineers. He also visited the JICA Project at Jhal Khanuana and lauded its performance.

DG Wasa Punjab Tayyab Farid termed the project a “revolutionary public welfare initiative,” while MD Faisalabad Sohail Qadir Cheema said the project would be completed within the stipulated time frame.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2025