SAHIWAL: Civil Lines police on Tuesday separately booked four irrigation department officials for their alleged involvement in electricity theft on the complaint of Kot Khadim Ali Shah staff of the Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco).

As per Mepco officials, the irrigation department employees were stealing electricity for their residences by directly attaching wires to the main supply line.

The officials say that Mepco Sahiwal Division Executive Engineer (EXEN) Rashid Maqbool received information that some officials and officers residing in Canal Colony were involved in electricity theft.

Acting on the information, the EXEN formed a Mepco team that conducted a raid in Canal Colony, allegedly finding four irrigation department employees -- Qasim, Kashif, Zia and Azeem – stealing electricity through hooks attached to the pool lines.

The team impounded the wires and other paraphernalia used in the power theft and disconnected the electricity meters of the houses of the suspects. As per an estimate, the suspects caused a total loss of Rs554,500 to Mepco through the power theft.

Later, Civil Line police registered four separate cases against the suspects under section 462-J of the Pakistan Penal Code on the compliant of Kot Khadim Ali Shah SDO Zahid Mahmood.

None of the suspects has been arrested so far.

Girl injured: A youth, who allegedly shot at and injured a female student, who was going to college with her sister on an electric bike, near Wapda House, was thrashed and handed over to Chichawatni Saddar police by locals.

As per the police, two sisters -- Ana Waheed and Umm-i-Kulsoom -- were on their way to the Government Post Graduate College, Chichawatni, to take an exam, when their bike was intercepted by a motorcyclist, later identified as Ihtesham Malik.

The suspect, after exchanging words with the two sisters, twice shot at Ana with a 30-bore pistol, leaving her leg injured. As a result, Ana fell onthe road, while her sister pleaded with the suspect not to kill her.

As per eyewitnesses, the suspect kept the pistol pointed at the sisters and hurled abuses at them.

On hearing the gunshots, locals and passersby gathered at the scene and some of them recorded videos of the episode with their phone cameras.

Meanwhile, one of the passersby showed courage and overpowered the suspect, snatching his pistol. At this, the onlookers pounced upon the suspect, gave him a good thrashing and later handed him over to the Saddar police.

A Rescue 1122 team, called to the spot, shifted the critically injured girl to the tehsil headquarters hospital for treatment.

The police investigations revealed that a few days earlier, both sisters had filed a complaint against Ihtesham for harassing girls on the road, which enraged the suspect, who attacked them.

The police registered a case against Ihtesham on the complaint of the girls’ uncle, Zaheer Abbas.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2026