BAHAWALPUR: A labourer and his son died after inhaling poisonous fumes, while cleaning a sewage well, and another man fell unconscious in a bid to rescue them, at Akbar Town Adda at Machiwal town of Vehari district on Monday.

According to Vehari Rescue 1122 media coordinator, a contractor hired two labourers – Azeem (50) and his son Owais (22) – to clean a 30-foot deep sewage wellat Akbar Town Addaat Machiwal.

As the father and son descended down the 30-foot-deep sewage well to clean it without any safety gadget, they both fell unconscious after inhaling the poisonous gasses accumulating in it.

Finding no response from the two labourers, the contractor sent another man, Shehbaz, down the well, who too passed out.

Another man rescued by a Rescue 1122 team

Alarmed by the situation, locals called a Rescue 1122 team to the scene.

The rescuers, acting swiftly, pulled the three labourers out, but two of them – Azeem and his son Owais – both residents of Chak No 433/EB, were found expired, while the third, Shehbaz,

a resident of Chak No 561/EB was rescued alive. On receipt of information about the incident, Vehari Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Khalid Goraya also reached the scene and supervised the rescue operation.

ACCIDENTS: A man was killed, while four other persons, including two women, suffered serious injuries, in two separate road accidents in Bahawalpur district on Monday.

In the first incident, one Khadim Hussain (50) died, while Afzal (55) and two women, Jannat Mai (50) and Nooran Mai (50), suffered serious injuries in a collision between a motorcycle and tractor-trolley at Mukhtiarabad on Vehari Road in Hasilpur tehsil of Bahawalpur district.

The body and the injured persons were shifted to the Hasilpur THQ Hospital, while traffic police arrested the tractor driver.

In the second incident, occurring at Baghochi Pull on Southern Bypass in Bahawalpur city, one Qadeer (50) suffered head injuries when he was hit by a speeding vehicle, while crossing the road.

He was shifted to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH) here in a serious condition.

The traffic police arrested the vehicle driver.

LAND ALLOCATED: The Cholistan Development Authority (CDA), Bahawalpur, hasallocated about 77,000 acres of land in Cholistan for ‘Apna Khet Apna Rozgar’ schemeof the Punjab government.

Bahawalpur Commissioner Irfan Ali Kathia, said this following a briefing by CDA officials about the scheme here on Monday.

According to the commissioner, the land aloocated for the scheme is situated in tehsils of Yazman in Bahawalpur district and Fortabbas in Bahawalnagar district.

He said the scheme is aimed at providing employment to landless persons by allotting them land and increasing the agricultural production in the division.

He added that allotment of the government land would be made in a transparent manner and such land’s entire data has been uploaded to a web portal.

EMBANKMENT: Punjab Irrigation Minister Mian Kazim Hussain Pirzada and Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Malik Zaheer Iqbal Channar have assured the affectees of last year’s flood in the river Sutlej at Mari Qasim Shah village that a concrete embankment will be constructed for their protection.

They were addressing a gathering of the flood-affected people at the village.

The locals narrated their stories of sufferings they went through during the last year’s flood in the area and informed the minister about the land erosion caused by the riverwater.

The deputy speaker and the minister directed the officials to conduct a survey in the area and approve government funds for the construction of a concrete enbankment so that the locals, their livestock and lands could be saved from erosion and floodwater.

According to an official handout, the irrigation minister assured the locals that the government would take immediate measures in this regard.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2026