GUJRANWALA, June 8: Five people, two of them passersby, were shot dead on Friday by armed men in what was reported to be a vengeful act. Many others were injured in the assault that took place at Ferozewala.

Reports said Iftikhar alias Khari, Iftikhar alias Ifti and Inam alias Tipu — all of Chak Jhumra (Faisalabad) — were going to their hideout by a car (LWR-474). As they crossed the upper Chenab canal bridge, armed men on two vehicles chased them and opened indiscriminate fire, killing the three car occupants.

Adila, wife of Ziaullah Butt, and Nasir, two passersby, also came in the line of fire and died on the spot.

Among the injured were: Bashir, Irshad, Gulzar, a class-VIII student, Riaz, Tahir, Sajjad, Azra, Shahid and Irfan. They were taken to the DHQ hospital where the condition of four of them was stated to be serious.

It is learnt that the car occupants and the assailants were proclaimed offenders who had an old enmity. The Ferozewala police claimed to have arrested the three assailants occupying the two vehicles and recovered arms from their possession.

That the place where the accident took place was a few yards from the highway police patrol post hardly meant anything to the law enforcers. DIG (Operations) Khadim Husain Bhatti, the city police officer, and his team inspected the area and ordered the police to trace the killers at the earliest.

Patrol police: Over 700 ‘inefficient’ policemen, who were meant to patrol highways, have been sent back to the district police and efficient policemen will be deployed in their place, a senior police official told a press conference here on Friday.

Highway Police Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Mian Muhammad Asif said that the police officials who were returned to the district police were corrupt and inefficient. He said that 60 new patrol posts were being set up in Punjab and 38 of them would be set up in Gujranwala range.

He said that he had sought photographs of proclaimed offenders from the district police for a crackdown on them. He said that patrol officers would be given new vehicles to improve their performance.

Electrocuted: The owner of an under-construction plaza and a labourer were electrocuted while three others suffered serious burn wounds in the Civil Lines area here on Friday.

Reports said that a three-storey commercial plaza was under-construction when owner Munir Butt and other people accidentally touched the overhanging 11KV electricity wire. Consequently, the owner and labourer Ehsanullah died on the spot while Zubair, Zahid and Navid Shah received serious burn wounds. They were shifted to Mayo Hospital, Lahore, in critical condition.