SAHIWAL: The local agriculture department has started heavy spray of insecticide in seven villages where locust hatcheries with millions of eggs were found in the last week of February.

Agriculture department sources confirmed that these hatcheries were identified in patches over 650 acres in seven villages of Sahiwal district, including 132/4R, 133/4R, 61/4R, Mauza Mir Dad Mafi, 91/6-R, 103/9L and 104/9L.

Deputy Director (Agriculture) Rana Habibur Rehman, while talking to Dawn, said seven surveillance and spray teams were simultaneously operating to eliminate the hatcheries. The department was trying its best to fully eliminate the nymphs – young, wingless locusts -- in a couple of weeks, he added.

Agriculture experts said the mature locusts laid their eggs in various villages of the district in January. The eggs started hatching in the second week of March.

Sahiwal Commissioner Ahsan Waheed had taken notice of the identification of locust hatcheries and asked the deputy commissioners concerned to conduct full surveillance of the affected areas.

Mr Rehman said the district administration had provided an insecticide containing the lambda cyhalothrin chemical whose confirmed mortality rate was between 90 and 95 per cent. The spray had been conducted on some nymphs and it yielded over 99pc result. The spray teams were covering 35 to 45 acres of affected land daily and fully destroying the nymphs.

The officer claimed that in 15 to 20 days, all hatcheries would be fully destroyed and there was no possibility that locusts could become mature flyers from these villages.

Muhammad Farooq Sadiq, the additional deputy commissioner (finance), who visited village 61/4R for surveillance, told Dawn that he hoped all the affected areas would be cleared soon.

BOOKED FOR MURDER: Arifwala City police booked three brothers, who are known cloth traders of the city, for allegedly murdering a tailor over a property dispute on Monday morning.

Cloth trader late Muhammad Younas had a property dispute with his cousin, Prof Aaqil. Younas wanted possession of a shop in Pir Inayat Ali Shah Street that Aaqil had rented out to tailor Zafar Iqbal 15 years ago. After Younas’s death, his sons Tanveer, Adeel and Zaheer pursued the dispute, but Aaqil did not want to vacate the shop.

On Sunday evening, the brothers went to the closed shop, broke its locks and occupied it. Someone informed Iqbal, who rushed to his shop and had an argument with the brothers during which a scuffle broke out and Zaheer pushed Iqbal, who hit the ground on his head.

Eyewitness and Rescue 112 sources say Iqbal died on the spot. His son Waqas had also reached the scene by that time. Seeing this, the suspects escaped from the scene.

City police rushed to the spot and took the body into custody and sent for autopsy.

City police station investigation officer, Mukhtar Ahmed, said the three suspects were on the run and police were conducting raids at different places to arrest them.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2020