Three gunned down

CHAKWAL, March 19: Three persons were shot dead in Talagang on Monday morning, sources told Dawn.

Munawar Hussain, a resident of Bhalomar village, was going to Lahore from Talagang with his friend Haji Mohammad Riaz, a resident of Dhurnal village. As they boarded a Lahore-bound bus at general bus stand, four persons in a car chased them. After a brief chase, they intercepted the bus. The armed assailants stormed into the bus and opened indiscriminate fire. Both friends died on the spot while another passenger Ghulam Sarfraz also came in the range of bullets and sustained serious injuries. He was rushed to Rawalpindi where he died.

According to police, Munawar had a feud with the attackers. Till the filing of this report, FIR could not be registered. “We would arrest the killers soon once the victims’ relatives nominate them,” Investigation Officer Ali Abbas said.— A Correspondent

Two held in child killing case

TAXILA, March 19: Hassanabdal police on Monday claimed to have arrested two persons in connection with the murder of a nine-year-old boy.

Ghulam Adeel’s body was recovered from Islampura locality on February 24. Investigating officer Sub-Inspector Saleem told mediapersons here that the police arrested Qaisar Shah and Khalid Mehmood of the same locality and sent their samples to Lahore for DNA test. He said the case would be further processed after getting the report.

It may be mentioned that the autopsy on the body had confirmed that the boy was sexually assaulted before being killed.

Sources said the police arrested the two accused on a tip-off provided by the boy’s family. — Correspondent

PIA steward remanded

RAWALPINDI, March 19: A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) cabin crew member, who was caught by the Airport Security Force (ASF) with large quantity of narcotics at Benazir Bhutto International Airport the other day, was remanded in Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) custody for two days here on Monday.

Sources said Farrukh Abbas was intercepted by the ASF staff during security check at the airport on Saturday night as the crew member was going to join duty on London-bound flight PK-775. During search, two packs of heroin powder were recovered from his bag. He was handed him over to the ANF for legal proceedings.

“He has not concealed narcotics in the bag. Normally, the baggage of the crew is not thoroughly searched by the security staff and perhaps he was not expecting it at all,” a security official claimed.After the heroin was seized, its quantity turned out to be around 6.2kg. — Staff Reporter

Nadra official wins award

ISLAMABAD, March 19: Deputy Chairman National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) Tariq Malik has won the ‘CIO of the Year’ award given away by Teradata Inc.

The award for Chief Information Officer (CIO) has been given away since 2000 every year. A panel of judges consisting of eminent computer scientists and information technology experts selected Mr Malik for the award for his valuable contribution in transforming Nadra from an identity-card issuing authority to a profitable international business organisation. Due to his untiring efforts Nadra was said to be rolling out cutting-edge biometric technology solutions which would result in good governance. — A Reporter

Roadmap for Afghan DPs  

ISLAMABAD, March 19: The government is setting up an inter-ministerial working group to prepare a roadmap for safe and voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees to their homeland, Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron) Engineer Shaukatullah Khan said.

He was chairing a meeting on ‘Repatriation, Secure Cards for Afghan Citizens (SCAC) and Unregistered Afghans’ here on Monday. The meeting had been convened to discuss establishment of inter-ministerial working group. It will review the decisions of the meeting of cabinet division on the management and repatriation strategy for Afghan refugees in Pakistan for the year 2010-2012.

The minister said Pakistan with the support of UNHCR is striving hard to carry on the repatriation programme in a safe and secure manner.— Staff Reporter