FAISALABAD, Dec 10: Standing crops of sugarcane, wheat and fodder worth millions of rupees were destroyed due to a breach in Gogera branch canal near Chak 487-GB of tehsil Samundri, about 37kms from here on Friday.

Reports said the breach of about 35-feet developed in the bank owing to its poor condition. The gushing water destroyed standing crops on over 1,000 acres of land. The area people rushed to the spot and tried to plug the breach, but they failed to do so. They informed Irrigation department officials who reached the site after few hours of the incident.

Despite hectic efforts of about six hours, the Irrigation staff could not plug the breach and the water was still gushing out from the canal till the filing of this report.

The villagers claimed they had suffered huge financial losses due to the destruction of their standing crops. They demanded action against officials of the Irrigation department for their failure to strengthen the embankments despite their repeated requests.

Heavy police contingents and officials of other departments concerned have been deputed at the site to provide assistance to the irrigation authorities. Sources said that most of the staff of the local Irrigation offices had been deputed at Chak 272-GB near Satiana in connection with the visit of Punjab Irrigation Minister Amir Sultan Cheema.

Nigerian held: The Anti-Narcotics Force arrested a drug trafficker with three kilo heroin at Faisalabad airport on Thursday night. On a tip off, an ANF team caught a Nigerian national, Aedi, when he was about to board a Dubai-bound flight and recovered heroin from his suitcases.

ANF sources claimed that the value of the seized heroin in the international market was Rs30 million. He had bought the narcotics from some tribal area and was bound to take it to some Gulf state.