SIALKOT, July 4: Armed bandits injured three people, including two women, on resistance besides looting cash, ornaments, electronic items and valuables worth Rs2.2 million in different strikes late Sunday night in Daska tehsil. A gang of 10 dacoits barged into the house of landlord Haji Muhammad Iqbal in Warsaaleky village, Sambrial. Armed bandits held hostage all family members, collected cash, ornaments and other valuables worth Rs1.5 million and escaped.

Four gunmen stormed into Naseem Bibi’s house in Sahowala village, Daska, made hostage inmates, including her five daughters and started scooping cash and valuables. The intruders injured Zobia Bibi seriously with repeated blows of pistol’s butt when she raised an alarm.

Listening to the hue and cry, neighbour Muhammad Asif reached there, but dacoits also shot and injured him. Later, they fled while firing in the air. The injured were admitted to hospital in critical condition.

In Kotli Noonan village in Sambrial, some 12 armed dacoits busted into the house of security guard Ghulam Rasul. They held hostage all the family members at gunpoint and escaped after gathering cash, ornaments, valuables and licensed gun worth Rs150,000.

On main Daska-Sambrial Road near Kung village in Begowala, two gunmen snatched a cell phone and thousands of rupees in cash from lawyer Rana Muhammad Ejaz. The same robbers also deprived a rickshaw passengers of cash, ornaments, mobile phones worth thousands of rupees.

Police have registered separate cases with no arrest.

GRANT RELEASED<./b>: The Punjab government has released a special grant of Rs150 million to the district government for provision of educational facilities to urban and rural areas.

Sialkot EDO (Finance & Planning) Rana Azhar Ali stated this while talking to the journalists here on Monday.

He said the provision of quality education to all was top priority of the district government in collaboration with the private sector and the business community.