SAHIWAL: A gang of five dacoits took away cash, gold ornaments and mobile phones, all worth around Rs2 million, from a house, where a marriage ceremony was going on, near Harappa Railway Station on Thursday night.

Reports said the wedding ceremonies of a brother of Iqbal Javed, a local grocery shop owner, were going on, when around 2am five armed dacoits forced their entry into the house.

They took the security guard, Imran, along with the family members and guests, hostage at gunpoint.

The dacoits collected Rs350,000 in cash, gold ornaments worth Rs1.66 million and mobile phones of the hostages, within 30-40 minutes, and fled away.

Harappa police have registered the case on the complaint of Iqbal Javed and started investigation. In another hit, dacoits snatched gold ornaments worth Rs0.4m from a woman, Khadija Bibi, at 89/6-R village.

As per police, Khadija Bibi was returning home from a goldsmith’s shop with gold jewellery, when she was targeted by dacoits.

wheat sowing target: Agriculture department officials claim that 88 percent of the wheat sowing target for the Sahiwal division has been achieved, as out of a total 920,000 acres of cultivable land, wheat had been sown on 805,000 acres.

The figures were shared during a meeting held here on Friday to review the progress of wheat sowing campaign of the Punjab government, chaired by Commissioner Shoaib Iqbal, at his office. today.

The Punjab government has offered incentives to the farmers, including 1,000 land levelers

for those sowing wheat on 25 acres, while those who have cultivated wheat on 12 acres will be included in the Green Tractor scheme of the chief minister, offering subsidised tractors through balloting.

Agriculture Director Shahbaz Akhter told Dawn that officers are monitoring the situation in the three districts of the division, hoping to moot the target by the second week of December.

To a question, he acknowledged that wheat farmers suffered losses last year because the government had surplus wheat due to a bumper crop and imports, which led to a trend of sowing less wheat this season.

However, he said, as wheat is a staple food, no farmer can afford to miss its sowing.

He claimed that the department has convinced farmers that their yield would be purchased at good price and they won’t be left at the mercy of the open market.

During the meeting, the commissioner directed the agriculture department to advertise the government incentives for the small and medium landowning growers.

As per officials, wheat had been sown on 266,000 acres in Sahiwal, 319,000 acres in Okara, and 219,000 acres in Pakpattan district.

Similarly, a commission agent, Jaffer Ali, was deprived of Rs85,000 cash and his bike near 56/4-R village by two motorcyclists.

Saddar police have registred cases, without any arrest so far.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2024