TOBA TEK SINGH: Eighteen schoolchildren and a rickshaw driver were injured seriously on Tuesday when a van hit a rickshaw on Toba-Gojra road.

The students were returning to their village Chak 284-JB after school. Near Noorpur railway station, a van hit the rickshaw from behind. Rickshaw driver Asad and 18 children, identified as Umme Habia, Toseef, Waheed, Maha, Bilal, Umer Draz, Ali Haider, Maham, Shahzeb, Saleem, Arooj, Ali, Farheen, Abdullah, Zohra, Waqas, Iqra, Abdul Rehman were wounded. They were admitted to the Gojra THQ Hospital from where doctors referred Arooj and Zohra to Faisalabad’s Allied Hospital in a critical condition.

Van driver Khalid managed to escape after the accident.

Faisalabad Commissioner Nasim Nawaz, Regional Police Officer Ihsan Tufail, Gojra Assistant Commissioner Syed Tanweer Murtaza and Deputy Superintendent of Police Atif Qureshi reached the hospital. Hundreds of residents of Chak 284-JB also visited the hospital.

PARDON: A woman pardoned her husband who had killed her mother, but got a divorce from him on Tuesday in Kamalia.

Nine months ago, Zameer Husain was pressing his wife Sobia Khurshid and her mother Mumtaz Bibi to wed Sobia’s younger sister off with his brother. But they turned down his proposal over which Husain had shot dead Mumtaz Bibi.

The murder case against Husain was under trial in the court of Kamalia additional district and sessions judge. Complainant Sobia pardoned Husain after which the court acquitted him on Monday, but Sobia got a divorce from him.

STRIKE: Several brick kiln workers continued their hunger strike on the second consecutive day outside district labour office on Tuesday demanding implementation of an agreement regarding their wages.

Labour Qaumi Movement District President Muhammad Shabbir, Kiln Workers Association office-bearers Akhtar Hussain, Baba Arshad Ansari and Madam Sajida announced that their hunger strike will continue till the acceptance of their demand. The administration will be responsible in case of a loss of life, they added.

Till the filing of this report, workers and owners of six kilns in Moongi, Gojra had settled at Rs800 per 1,000 bricks and the owners had agreed in writing. The remaining labourers were still protesting.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2015

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