TOBA TEK SINGH, Oct 13: Robbers snatched a pick-up vehicle of a Chinese engineering company from its driver after administering him poisonous drink and fled after throwing him in a drain near a flour mill on Gojra Bypass Road on Sunday night.
The Chinese company is working on the construction of Jhang-Toba-Chichawatni Road and driver Akbar took meal from company’s camp mess on Toba-Jhang Road near Chak 382-JB, Feroze, to supply to staff in their various camps.
He was on his way to the last camp near Shakar Ganj sugar mills on Toba-Jhang Road when four robbers intercepted him near Moza Hasan Shah, some 20 kilometers away from here, and asked him to produce documents of his vehicle to show to a ‘magistrate’ sitting in the car parked nearby.
As soon as he came out of his vehicle, the robbers bundled him into their car, tied him up with ropes and administered him poisonous drink, which made him unconscious. The robbers later abandoned the driver in a drain near a flour mills on Gojra Bypass Road and fled. Officials of the engineering company and police launched a search operation, but to no avail.
On Monday morning, a farmer spotted the fainted driver near his fields on which he and locals took the driver to a nearby farm from where he was shifted to DHQ Hospital.
The police later registered a case on the statement of the driver but were clueless till the filing of this report. Security of the Chinese staff has been tightened and more police guards have been provided to them.
RAID: The agriculture department task force on Monday raided fertilizer shops in grain market and caught three dealers while overcharging. The city police later registered separate cases against Asif, Shahbaz and Rana Usman.
ROTI: The district administration have selected 114 tandoors of the district which will be supplied 20 kilogramme flour bags at the rate of Rs250 per bag to subsequently provide roti at Rs2 per piece to customers.
An official said that 17 tandoors had been selected in Toba, 16 in Rajana, 23 in Kamalia, 26 in Pirmahal and 32 in Gojra.
EMBEZZLEMENT: The agriculture engineering department staffers have allegedly misappropriated diesel and lubricants worth over Rs1.1 million.
Sources told Dawn on Monday that show cause notices had been issued to seven employees, including bulldozer machine operators Yousaf, Saleem, Rafiq and Mushtaq, mechanic Rashid, cleaner Muhammad Hasan and tractor operator Boota.
Sources said that all had been transferred while Agriculture Minister Ahmad Ali Oalakh had called for a report regarding the scam and summoned department's Faisalabad region director.