FAISALABAD, April 29: Police claimed to have arrested all the nine accused in a double-murder case within 24 hours of the occurrence of the crime.

District Police Officer Muhammad Amin Wains told journalists here on Friday that a gang of armed persons shot dead one Pehlwan Tharaj and his son Gulbaz Ahmed when they were irrigating their fields in Chak No 436 GB of Satiana.

The DPO said after employing scientific methods of investigation and using sniffers and trained tracers the police came to know that some of the old rivals of the victims allegedly masterminded and committed the crime.

Following the registration of case against the accused, Muhammad Khan, Yousaf, Shahid, Jawed, Muhammad Ali, Umer Hayat, Zulfiqar and Umer Ali, the police rounded them up and started interrogation, the DPO added.

US counsellor: US commercial and economic counsellor Joel Reifman has stressed the need for joint ventures and bilateral trade relations with Pakistan to meet the challenges of the WTO regime.

Speaking to the members of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Friday, he claimed that several US companies were direct buyers of Pakistan’s textile made-ups and other items. The economic and commercial relations between the two countries could be enhanced through exchange of trade delegations, he added.

Mr Reifman pointed out that in the light of the post-WTO regime, Pakistan had been facing problems in human resource development and it would have to adopt well-prepared policies to meet this challenge.

He said the US embassy had tried to launch a comprehensive policy for providing visas to Pakistani industrialists so that they could bridge the gap between the two markets.

He revealed that his government had chalked out a policy to spend $90 million in different countries for the promotion of education. Under this programme, as many as 500 Pakistani students would be given US visas for higher education on very simple conditional formalities.

Earlier, FCCI President Mian Muhammad Idress said Pakistan was the traditional partner of the US in commercial trade. It had also played a pivotal role in war against terrorism, he added.

He said Pakistan had the support of a number of European countries over the issue of zero-rated GSP status, and hoped that the US government would also support its move.