DADU, Feb 15: Four members of a family were kidnapped by a gang of bandits from the Sateen Shaikh village near Johi town on Friday.

A group of 10 bandits barged into the house of Akbar Babbar and held the entire family hostage at gunpoint.

Later, they kidnapped Akbar Babbar, Ghulam Hussain, Mohammad Ishaque and Haji Anwar and escaped towards a hilly area while resorting to aerial firing.

The DPO, operation, Ali Akbar Bhangwar, told Dawn that the police was combing the area.

DEMO: People belonging to the Pat Sharif town on Saturday staged a demonstration outside the local press club here to protest against the divisional engineer, telephones, Dadu.

The protest was organized by the Citizens Action Committee.

The protesters complained about the inordinate delay in provision of telephones, saying that they had deposited demand notes over six months ago but were still without telephone connections.

They urged the PTCL authorities to intervene and provide them with telephone connections on a priority basis.

ELECTROCUTED: Liaquat Ali, 25, died of electrocution on Saturday after he touched a live wire in his house in the Tore village, Khairpur Nathan Shah taluka.

SUICIDE: An 18-year-old boy, Basheer Ahmed, son of Abdul Latif Arain, on Saturday committed suicide by ingesting pesticide.

The incident, which occurred in the Mohammad Ali Arain village of Dadu taluka, is said to have been sparked by a domestic dispute.