LAKKI MARWAT: A student died and six suffered injuries when roof of a room of a seminary collapsed due to heavy rain in Lakki city on Tuesday night, rescue and district administration officials said.

The rescuers retrieved body of a student and six injured from the debris and shifted them to the government city hospital.

The deceased was identified as Sharifullah, 15, a resident of Michenkhel, and the injured included Ikramullah, 17, of Begukhel, Nabiullah, 17, of Surband, Fidaullah, 14, and Awais, 18, of Lakki city, Misbah, 18, of Kot Kashmir and Hafiz Umer, 15, of Waziristan.

One of the injured students was later referred to Khalifa Gul Nawaz Hospital in Bannu.

A seminary official said the students were sleeping in a room when its roof collapsed.

The monsoon rain also caused damage to boundary walls of houses and roads in parts of the district. Water inundated houses in low-lying areas, forcing people to shift to safer places.

Residents in Dall Mill area told Dawn that they spent the night awake, fearing possible damage to their houses by flash floods.

The affected people asked the government to compensate them for the losses.

PROTEST: Medicine sellers on Wednesday observed a shutter down strike in Lakki city against the levying of advance tax on life-saving drugs. The strike by chemists caused inconvenience to residents as they could not purchase medicines for their ailing relatives.

Local chemists association’s president Bashir Khan said the levying of tax on life-saving drugs would cause an increase in their prices.

“The imposition of advance tax is tantamount to economic murder of chemists,” he said, asking the government to waive off the levy.

In another development, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety and Halal Food Authority officials seized and disposed of substandard soft drinks and food items during raids on shops on the outskirts of the Lakki city on Wednesday.

An official said authority’s assistant director Farhan Ahmad along with officials of the district administration led the raids.

He said over 2,500 litres of substandard and expired soft drinks, and food items were discarded.

The officials fined a baker over poor hygiene conditions in his production unit.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2021