SUKKUR, July 1: At least 25 villages in the Ghotki district were inundated when the Mahar Wah developed an 80-foot-wide breach near Mubarak Pur on Thursday afternoon.

It is said that if the breach is not plugged immediately, many houses where knee-deep water has accumulated will collapse.

The breach affected vegetable and cotton crops in the area. The inundated villages include Khuda Dad Mehtam, Mahar Ali Nawaz, Malik Mahar, Haji Pitafi, Khuhro Pitafi, Soomar Mehtam, Ghaffar Malik and Azeem Khan.

Irrigation authorities said the SDO concerned had reached at the breach site along with staff and work to plug the breach had been started with the help of villagers. The villagers said the breach had occurred due to negligence of irrigation official as they had taken no steps to strengthen embankments of the Wah for five years.

BANDITS HELD: Two bandits were arrested by the police following an encounter at the Kandhra bypass here the other day. A mobile of the Kandhra police was on a routine patrol when armed men opened fire on it at the bypass. The police returned the fire and an encounter took place after which the police managed to arrest Jamal Shah and Ghulam Hussain Shaikh while their two accomplices fled.