KOHAT: A private organisation has opened the second blood transfusion centre in Kohat to cope with an increasing number of thalassaemia, cancer and kidney patients.

Wasif Khan, head of the United Foundation, told Dawn that the organisation had 500 registered patients, whose number was rising.

Medical superintendent of Liaquat Memorial Hospital Dr Hashim Bokahri, and Mutahir Shah, a representative of the foundation, inaugurated the facility near the old bus stand the other day.

Mutahir Shah said the centre had a storage capacity of 300 blood bags, and initially they would cater to 45 registered and 60 unregistered patients, besides providing the facility to hospitals.

He said besides the blood bank, the centre had a white blood cell separation machine.

POLIO CAMPAIGN: Deputy commissioner Furqan Ashraf has tasked the health authorities with addressing the hundreds of polio refusal cases by convincing parents to protect their children from permanent disability.

Speaking at a meeting held the other day to inaugurate an anti-polio campaign starting from Monday, he said assistant commissioners, tehsildars, and elders would handle the refusal cases.

Mr Ashraf asked district health officer Dr Mohabat Ali to also involve clerics and local jirgas for the purpose.

Dr Mohabat Ali told Dawn that in June 2022, a total of 722 refusal cases were reported, of which 472 were successfully covered.

The meeting was told that 869 teams had been constituted for administering polio drops to 210,000 children.

MOTORCYCLIST KILLED: A man was killed when a dumper truck hit his motorcycle in Akhorwal area of Darra Adamkhel tribal subdivision on Saturday.

A police official said Najeebullah was going home on a motorcycle when a dumper struck him. He was moved to a local hospital in critical condition, where he succumbed to injuries.

The deceased belonged to Bostikhel tribe.

The driver of the dumper was arrested.

PROTEST: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf workers staged a rally at the Peshawar Square here on Saturday against the alleged torture of party leader Shehbaz Gill.

District development advisory committee chairman MPA Ziaullah Khan Bangash and PTI district president Atif Bangash led the rally.

The protesters said in worst martial law regimes such brutality was not witnessed as was being done under the PML-N government against its rivals.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2022