MANSEHRA: Lower Kohistan police on Saturday arrested a former village council chairman for allegedly inciting protesters to divert water from a channel, suspending electricity production from Dubair hydropower unit for more than two months earlier this year.

A police party raided a house in the Dubair area and arrested Juma Shah Jalali, who also runs a social media page.

“We had booked 49 people for suspending electricity production at the unit under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. One person has been arrested, three have obtained pre-arrest bail, and raids are underway to arrest the rest,” district police officer Zafar Ahmad Khan told reporters.

The water channel was closed during a two-month-long sit-in, which was staged against the delay in the reconstruction of Dubair-Ranowali Road, which was washed away in the 2022 floods.

According to police, the protesters were booked after successive rounds of talks failed to impress upon the elders to end the sit-in.

The World Bank, under an agreement with the Water and Power Development Authority, recently approved Rs500 million for the road’s reconstruction.

VARSITY STUDENT DIES: A girl student of Hazara University died after allegedly inhaling a poisonous substance, a varsity’s spokesperson said.

“We are unaware of the actual cause of her death and have launched an internal inquiry into the incident as the family is yet to approach us,” the spokesperson told Dawn on Saturday.

“The BS student was reportedly taken to the university’s dispensary after her condition deteriorated while in the classroom. She was subsequently shifted to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, where she later died,” a family member told Dawn.

He said university officials had contacted the family after she was shifted to the varsity’s dispensary, and according to doctors, she died after inhaling a poisonous substance.

The family member said she had gone to the university in good health.

Meanwhile, a boy died after falling from the rooftop of his house in the Balian area of Oghi.

The family said Mohammad Atif was rushed to a nearby health facility, where doctors pronounced him dead.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2026