SUKKUR, Jan 13: A number of schools have been recently opened in at least 20 villages in the kutcha area of Ghotki district.
These schools have been jointly sponsored by the Engro Chemicals, Daharki, and Ali Institute, Lahore, for supporting the cause of education in rural areas, which in the past had fallen prey to the activities of dacoits and kidnappers.
Engro Chemicals will be providing text-books to the students and salaries to the teachers of the schools. Besides, it has also agreed to set up an urea agency so that fertilizers could be provided to the growers at cheap rates.
Some journalists of Ghotki and Sukkur visited one such school at Nazar Indhar village on Sunday accompanied by the manager administration, Engro Chemical, Daharki, Shamsuddin Shaikh.
The school has two teachers, Suhail Ahmed and Qabool Shah, who were teaching around a hundred students, both boys and girls, there. The students were sitting on wooden benches inside a bamboo hut.
This area had remained cut off for years from the urban area of Ghotki because several dacoits held sway over here including the Chachars, Shaikhs and Teghanis.
Dr Dal said that he convinced the Engro factory, Daharki, to promote education in at least 20 villages. First a katcha road network was set up to go ahead with the plan.
Dacoit killed: An alleged dacoit was killed and another was injured when a police party opened fire on them on the National Highway near Pano Aqil on Sunday.
Police sources claimed that armed dacoits were trying to loot trucks and other vehicles near Gando Kari Phatak. Police saw them and opened fire as a result of which Ali Nawaz Indhar was killed on the spot and his accomplice, Mehboob Indhar, was injured. A TT pistol and a shotgun were recovered from their possession.
After the incident, Indhar tribesmen blocked the National Highway near Baiji Sharif for several hours.
They burnt tyres and pelted stones on vehicles. They termed the killing “a murder”.
The Indhar tribesmen demanded that an FIR be registered against the police for killing innocent tribesmen.
The DSP, Taj M. Noonari, and Sardar Ghaffar Indhar, chieftain of the Indhar tribe, assured the tribesmen that the culprits would be brought to justice.
Eyewitnesses told journalists at Pano Aqil that Ali Nawaz and Mehboob were headed home after finishing their work and they had a licensed shotgun.