SWABI: The district administration arrested four people and seized two excavators over illegal mining during raids in different areas here on Monday, officials told Dawn.

The administration, they said had warned the people against illegal mining.

When contacted, an official told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the influential people had been involved in illegal mining, but the administration had prepared a mechanism to curb the practice.

The official said a party led by Tabinda Tariq, assistant commissioner Chota Lahor, conducted raids at Jaganat, Adnan Talao and Jalsai. He said officials of the mining department accompanied the raiding party.

The official said an FIR had been registered against the four arrested persons.

Meanwhile, the motorway police recovered 13 kilogrammes hashish and five kilogrammes opium from a car abandoned on the road on Monday.

The car was parked on the roadside and the police officials approached the vehicle to help its passengers if they were facing any problem.

However, there was nobody in the car. On checking the vehicle, the policemen recovered 13kg charas and 5kg opium from it.

They drove the car to Chota Lahor city police station and registered an FIR against the unidentified smugglers.

LAID TO REST: Mubasir Khan, an army man who died in a road accident in Lahore on Sunday, was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in Naro Banda, Maneri Bala, with military honour on Monday. He left behind a widow, two sons and a daughter to mourn his death.

CALL FOR UNITY: Provincial leaders of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Nazriyati) on Monday warned that linking terrorism with the Muslims was a conspiracy hatched by the western powers, and called for unity among Islamic countries to foil such nefarious designs.

Speaking at a meeting, they said Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq were in turmoil due to such conspiracies.

On the occasion, Gul Rehman, provincial chief of JUI-N, said calling terrorism an Islamic world’s product was a tactic to weaken the Muslim countries.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2019