KOHAT, Dec 11: Commissioner Khalid Khan Umerzai has directed the district police officer and district coordination officer to ensure that Friday prayers and movement of mourners' processions in the city's main bazaar do not coincide on Ashura day.

Giving these directives while chairing a high-level meeting here on Saturday, Mr Umerzai also sought help of local religious leaders for avoiding overlapping of prayers and processions on the 10th of Muharram, falling on Friday, December 17.

He also appealed to the clerics to avoid controversial speeches and keep volume of loudspeakers low during sermons at the Friday congregations. He asked them to follow the true spirit of Islam, which teaches peace and tolerance.

ROAD PROJECT: Work on the widening and reconstruction of inter-provincial Shakardarra-Karrappa road was kicked off by the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited on Saturday. The project will cost Rs23.2 million.

The road reconstruction was the old demand of area people who had been staging protests after it was ruined by heavy vehicles transporting oil from local OGDCL fields to Punjab since 2004.

The work on reconstruction of the 32km road was inaugurated by MNA Pir Dilawar Shah and MPA Iqbal Din Fana. The regional coordinator of the OGDCL, Mushfiq Paracha, local elders and other officials were also present on the occasion. The project would be completed in one and a half years.

SUICIDE: A young man and a girl committed suicide in Dhok Garhi Par in Khushalgarh here on Saturday after their parents denied them permission for marriage, police said.

According to Gumbat police, the girl ended her life by taking poison, which shocked the young man who shot himself dead with a pistol. The police have registered the case and started investigation.