Woman found dead

MANSEHRA, Feb 6: A woman was found dead here on Wednesday.

The body of a woman was found in Jinkiari area. The victim, Saleema Bibi, had gone to meet her daughter in the nearby village but did not return home. Later, her body was found dumped in a deserted place. The Saddar police registered case and started investigation.

Meanwhile, a ten-year-old boy, Osama Younus, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Khaki area.

Mohammad Younus while registering FIR with Khaki police station stated that unidentified people shot dead his son and fled the scene. —Correspondent

Former militants freed

KHAR, Feb 6: Thirty-eight former militants who got 11 weeks technical training at Naway Sahar training institute of the army were set free here on Wednesday.

A function in this connection was held at Khar attended by army sector commander north Brig Haider, political agent Syed Abdul Jabbar Shah, tribal elders and government functionaries.

Addressing the function, Brig Haider and PA Syed Abdul Jabbar said militants defamed Islam the world over for their vested interests. They said terrorism and extremism were cancer of the society, which needed to be rooted out.

They called upon the former militants to utilise their energies in serving the humanity. They urged them to take advantage of the new life and play their due role in the development of their respective areas. National songs and tableaus were presented at the function. Stalls of various items were also displayed. —Correspondent

Lakki residents threaten protest

LAKKI MARWAT, Feb 6: The elders of Zangikhel, Mela Mandrakhel, Kakkakhel and Matora have threatened to launch a protest campaign if work on the installation of Ghaznikhel-I feeder was not restarted forthwith.

They told journalists on Wednesday that after approval work had started on establishment of power feeder and electricity polls of the transmission line were erected. “But now work on the project has been stopped due to unknown reasons for last several months, causing unrest among the rural population,” they maintained.

They said setting up power feeder was a matter of life and death for the residents of rural localities because they had been hit hard by prolong loadshedding. “The new power feeder will rid the area people of electricity outages and improve voltage,” they added.

They said stoppage of work on Ghaznikhel-I feeder was beyond their comprehension as work on other projects in power sector was underway in the district. —Correspondent

Workers seek job security

MARDAN, Feb 6: The male mobilisers of the social welfare department have demanded of the federal and provincial governments to regularise their services.

The contractual male mobilisers made these demands during a press conference held here on Wednesday. They said they had been recruited in 2004 in the social welfare department. They lamented that they met the high-ups several times who promised to fulfill their demands but to no avail.

They said all the 41 employees were graduate as it was the basic requirement for recruitment in the department but their salaries were fixed at meager Rs7,000 which was even less than what a labourer got.

They said the government also didn’t honour its announcement of fixing their salary at Rs8,000.—Correspondent