TIMERGARA, Jan 30:  Three more children, including two from the same family, on Wednesday died of measles in Kurshong and Utala villages of Maidan tehsil in Upper Dir district.

The viral disease had claimed the life of a local girl, Raziat, 6, a day ago.Local officials said Amjad, 7, her sister, Roma, 5, and another girl were the three children killed by measles on Wednesday.

They added that many more victims of the viral disease had been hospitalised in the region.

The officials said most of the measles cases had been reported in Balu Khan, Kurshong and Utala areas. When contacted, district health officer Dr Shaukat said he had learnt about the four deaths but couldn’t say if they were caused by measles.

He said he would send a team of experts to the region today (Thursday) to ascertain if the children died of measles. The DHO said he couldn’t dispatch the team to the region earlier because all officials of the health department were ‘too busy’ with the three-day anti-polio campaign that ended on Wednesday.

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT REGRETTED: Speakers at a dialogue here on Wednesday regretted corporal punishment at government schools and seminaries, saying punishing schoolchildren is a violation of child rights and human dignity under the law.

Timergara Press Club had organised the event to sensitise teachers and parents to children’s rights and the need to end corporal punishment.

Social activist Akbar Khan told participants that in many cases, corporal punishment had been threatening children’s rights to education, development, health and even survival.

He said Pakistan was a signatory to the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Children, which clearly prohibited corporal punishment of children through multiple articles on the best of child, survival and development and protection from abuse and neglect.