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TIMERGARA, Oct 17: The revolting prisoners of the District Jail were shifted to Haripur and other jails of the province while the situation inside the jail was normal and under-control, sources told Dawn here on Friday.
The prisoners had held hostage four of the jail officials on Thursday and had resisted security forces who, however, took control over the revolting prisoners. The prisoners were reportedly armed with pistols and hand-grenades.
The majority of them were stated to be Taliban fighters from Swat, Shangla, Dir and other areas of the NWFP.
According to the sources, 54 of the prisoners were sent to different jails of the province. However, officials were reluctant to expose their names and new locations to the media.
The jail staff told this scribe that they had no record available at the moment.
Authorities claimed that they had “foiled a sabotage attempt because the revolting prisoners could have tried to break the jail as there had been information about a suicide attack on the jail”.
KIOSKS GUTTED: At least 20 roadside kiosks and cabins in Chakdara bazaar were gutted on Thursday night when fire broke out in one of the nearby shops due to short circuit.
According to police and residents, the fire broke out in one of the shops in Bkhtiar market opposite to the Dir Museum at midnight and spread out in the whole area engulfing the adjacent kiosks and cabins of fruits, vegetables, cold drinks and milk.
The fire turned everything into ashes and nothing could be saved, residents said. However, the firefighters took control over the fire till morning and further destruction was stopped. Most of the owners of the damaged cabins and kiosks were Afghan refugees.
The victims have demanded of the government to compensate them as all of them had no other source to earn a living.
Residents of Chakdara have demanded of the district and provincial governments to arrange a separate fire brigade vehicle and staff for the area, currently the facility was at a distance of over 40 kilometres from Timergara, they added.
VICTIM BURIED: Police sub-inspector Syed Afzal, who was killed in the Mingora suicide attack the other day, was laid to rest on Friday in his ancestral graveyard at Bandagai Talash.
Some two years ago, his brother ASI Syed Haleem had also sacrificed his life during an encounter in Lower Dir, residents said.
