TOBA TEK SINGH, Aug 5: A former Gojra city union council nazim has charged the Nawan Lahore police officials with killing a villager in a staged encounter. Speaking at a press conference at Gojra on Friday, Advocate Chaudhry Saifullah Cheema claimed Niaz Warraich, a resident of Chak 358-JB (Wahla), was at his brick kiln when a party of the Nawan Lahore police raided the place and shot the man.

He demanded an inquiry into the incident and suspension of the policemen concerned.

Meanwhile, a DPO office spokesman denied the allegation and said in the wake of the upcoming local-government polls some local politicians were casting a slur on the police to win sympathies of relatives of Niaz Warraich who was killed in a shootout.

He said seven cases were registered with various police stations in Toba Tek Singh against the deceased. A police constable was seriously wounded by the firing of Niaz and his accomplices in the encounter and the official was still under treatment at the Gojra Tehsil Headquarters Hospital.

GANG SMASHED: The Saddar police smashed on Thursday night an inter-district gang of robbers.

A police official claimed on Friday that five members of the gang were at Wahla Bridge when the police raided the spot on a tip-off and arrested Sheraz alias Pappu, Imran alias Mocha, Asif, Abu Huraira and Naeem alias Neema.

FURNITURE: Under the Education Sector Reforms Programme, furniture worth Rs157 million has been supplied to 428 government schools in the district.

An education department official said on Friday Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had released Rs134 million for the provision of various facilities in the government schools for the current year.