TOBA TEK SINGH: Qadirpur police in Jhang on Sunday registered a case against 22 people for murdering two persons and injuring as many over the dispute of possession of two kanal land owned by the Auqaf department at Aqilpur locality.

The suspects include Sub-Inspector Muzammal Kalyar and a known local political figure, Babar Panah Bhatti. Both of them were nominated in the first information report (FIR) for abetting the suspects. More than a dozen suspects have been arrested and raids are being conducted to arrest their accomplices.

According to reports, the state land was in possession of the attacker party for the last five decades. This year, the other group cultivated wheat on the land. When the men of this group were harvesting the crop on Saturday, their opponents opened fire on them, which was retaliated.

In the crossfire, Ramzan, 13, and Sooba Khan, 25, were killed while Akram, 35, and Ishaq Khan, 45, sustained injuries.

WHEAT SMUGGLING: Jaranwala Assistant Commissioner Shoukat Masih Sindhu along with Price Magistrate Malik Tasawwar Hussain conducted a raid at Alipur Bangla on Sunday and foiled an attempt to smuggle 1,503 wheat bags loaded on three tractor-trolleys.

A press release said all the wheat bags were issued to a flour mill by the food department.

Meanwhile, Jhang District Food Controller Malik Muhammad Zaman told the media that the Punjab government had set a target of purchasing 26,30,000 bags (100kg each) of wheat from the Jhang district. He said distribution of gunny bags was in progress at 18 wheat procurement centres across the district.

In Faisalabad, Punjab Local Government and Community Development Secretary Dr Irshad Ahmed visited free flour distribution centres along with DC Ali Anan Qamar.

In Toba, Deputy Commissioner Adnan Irshad said more than 50,000 free flour bags had so far been delivered to the deserving in the district.

Meanwhile, Faisalabad City Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Zubair took action against a cash and carry store for overcharging and failure to display the price list issued by the district administration. He imposed a Rs200,000 fine on the store.

ROBBERIES: Fourteen robbers, including three in police uniform and others in the security company uniform, robbed the house of a farmer, Muhammad Waqas, at Chak 144-RB in the area of Sahianwala police in Faisalabad.

The complainant claimed in the FIR that the outlaws tortured him and other male and female members of his family and tied them with ropes. He added that they took away cash, gold ornaments and other valuables worth more than Rs2.1m.

The suspects attempted to rob another house in the same village but ran away when the alarm was raised by the family.

In another incident, three burglars shot at and injured one Farooq Hussain of Chak 85-JB when he resisted their attempt to rob him on the Painsara-Dijkot Road in the Thikriwala Police Station area.

In yet another incident, four robbers took away solar panels worth Rs1m from the outhouse of a farmer at Chak 417-JB, Gojra, on Saturday night.

The robbers tied the farmer, Saifullah, and his servant, Qasim Ali, and loaded the solar panels and accessories in a loader motorcycle-rickshaw and escaped. Saifullah had installed the solar panels for electricity to use for a tube well at his agricultural farm.

In Samundri, 11 robbers took away golden ornaments, cash, licensed weapons, electronics, mobile phones and other valuables worth more than Rs4.5m from the house of a medicine store owner at Chak 478-GB.

Hafiz Attiqur Rehman informed the police that all suspects were wearing similar trousers. They tied him with ropes and locked him in a room along with women of his family. The suspects brought two of his neighbours into his house and also locked them in a separate room before committing the crime.

PTI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Gojra, leader Khalifa Muhammad Kashif advocate, demanded the party chief Imran Khan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Asad Umar to stop humiliating the workers by awarding the party tickets to ‘the turncoats’ for the general election.

Addressing a press conference, he said those PTI activists who faced police torture and gave sacrifices for the party were being ignored as the tickets were being granted to such people who would never stand by the party and betray it in trouble.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2023