HYDERABAD, July 18: The body of a range forest officer, who had died in the NWFP during field training, was buried in Jamshoro on Saturday. The officer, Abdul Qadeer, son of Mohammad Hayat, was one of five candidates who had done B.Sc (forestry) last year and had been sent on a 15-day field project, part of one-and-half year training course offered by the Pakistan Forest Institute, Peshawar.

Syed Ghulam Murtaza Shah, brother of Sindh Public Service Commission secretary Syed Imtiaz Shah, also had died at the Makra hill station, located at a height of 14,000 feet, in the Shogran area of the NWFP.

They are believed to have died due to cold and hunger after they lost maps of the territory and could not reach their specified location after completing field training.

Reports said four groups, each comprising six trainees, had been formed for the training. Three of them completed their training successfully while the last one went missing.

Except for Mr Qadeer and Mr Shah, the four other group members, including a woman, reached their destination. An SPSC official told this correspondent the SPSC secretary had left for Peshawar to receive the body of his brother.