MANSEHRA: The forest department has sent a senior employee on forced retirement and sacked low-grade employees over involvement in timber smuggling in Oghi.

The action was taken in light of an inquiry, Agror Tanawal divisional forest officer Mohammad Siddique told reporters here.

He said the inquiry against range officer Masoodur Rehman, forester Mohammad Faridoon and forest guard Jehanzeb began in Dec 2015 after a team led by then divisional forest officer Taimur Altaf found 84 trees illegally cut in Chagri forest.

Mr. Siddique said the inquiry found the three to be involved in timber smuggling.

He said the crackdown on illegal cutting of trees and helpers of timber smugglers in the division would continue.

The DFO said he had initiated action on the old pending cases against timber smugglers.

“Over 1,000 dead cases of timber smuggling pending with various police stations have been revitalized. Once the legal proceedings are complete, over 6,000 timber smugglers will either be arrested or punished,” he said.

Mr. Siddique asked the people to help the department crack down on timber smuggling.

PREGNANT WOMAN KILLED: A man killed his three-month pregnant daughter-in-law and dumped the body at a deserted place in Nakot area of Mansehra district on Saturday morning.

SHO of Khaki police station Mohammad Javed told reporters here that the police found the body of an unidentified woman, who was brutally killed, and shifted it to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital for postmortem.

He said the woman was later identified by her father as Rukhtaj Bibi, 20.

The SHO said the woman’s father, Mohammad Bilal, claimed his daughter was killed by her father-in-law, Khanizaman.

He said first the woman was strangulated by a rope and then, her head was hit by a hammer.

The SHO said the police had yet to arrest the suspected killer to know the reason behind the murder.

He said the woman’s father was not home when she was killed.

PTI DEMAND: The PTI Kohistan activists on Saturday demanded the change in the online membership system saying the telecommunication system in their district is not efficient.

Sarfraz Khan, Hamid Suraj and others told reporters here that Kohistan was a highly backward district, where cellphone services were not available by and large.

“Our 80 per cent population lives in far-off mountainous and hilly areas, where telecom service is not available. If the online or SMS registration system is not changed, our people will not able to get themselves registered with the party,” Mr. Sarfraz Khan said.

He said the leadership should allow the people of Kohistan to register themselves with the party through written forms.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2016