GUJRANWALA: Of the two brothers, who went missing from their Jalapur Bhattian home on Monday, one was found killed on Tuesday.

The family along with thousands of people blocked Pindi Bhattian Road and protested against the incident. They pelted the police with stones injuring an assistant sub-inspector (ASI).

The Hafizabad district police officer (DPO) suspended the station house officer (SHO) of the Jalalpur Bhattian police.

Two residents of Mohalla Iqbal Town -- Ali Hamza (12) and Zaman Akhtar (14) -- left their house to buy vegetable but did not return.

Their father Muhammad Akhtar submitted an application to the SHO that four unidentified people kidnapped his sons and killed them. The police registered a case against unidentified suspects and raided various places to recover them. On Tuesday morning, some locals saw a body placed in the fields in Jalalpur Bhattian and informed the police.

A police contingent arrived at at the scene. The body was later identified as of Hamza while his brother, Zaman, was still missing.

The body was handed over to the family after autopsy.

After the incident, shopkeepers closed down markets and thousands of people along with the family of the deceased blocked Pindi Bhattian Road placing the body on the road and protested for hours.

DPO Bilal Iftikhar also arrived in the town. Seeing him, the protesters pelted the police with stones leaving ASI Arif Ishaq injured. He was shifted to the THQ Hospital while the DPO along with police left the scene.

Protesters demanded the arrest of the suspects and the rescue of Zaman.

The DPO suspended SHO Zaifat Bath and posted Arooj Abbas new SHO. The DPO also formed two teams to arrest the suspects.The DPO met the parents of the deceased and assured them to arrest the suspects.

INJURED: A youth riding a motorcycle suffered injuries on Tuesday on the neck when a sharp string, believed to be part of a stray kite, became entangled with the string in Gakhar Mandi.

Locals shifted Abubakar (17) to a nearby hospital where he got 12 stitches on the neck. This is the third incident of string-related injuries in Gakhar Mandi in a week. Earlier, Talha and Bilal were also injured.

Residents of Gakhar Mandi demanded that Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar take notice of kite flying.

IMPOUNDED: The Excise and Taxation Department impounded more than 225 vehicles on Tuesday for not depositing token tax and also confiscated 2,543 illegal registration plates in a general hold-up in the city.

Excise and Taxation Officer Rana Gulzar Ahmad told reporters that there were thousands of vehicles in the city running without paying token tax so the department brought action on those owners.

Teams cheeked buses, vans, trucks, cars, motorcycles and other vehicles and found them defaulters on token tax and without patron number plates.

He asked the people to pay token tax regularly and get registered their vehicles otherwise strict action would be taken against them.

ROOF COLLAPSE: Two brothers were injured seriously late on Monday when the roof of their shop caved in because of a fire there in Wazirabad.

Muhammad Siddique was running an illegal oil shop on Wazirabad-Sialkot Road near the city park.

Late on Monday, the fire broke out in the shop which collapsed the roof of the shop on them leaving Muhammad Afzaal and Muhammad Aamir injured who were asleep there.

Rescue 1122 shifted them to the Wazirabad Tehsil Headquarters Hospital while Aamir was reffered to Mayo Hospital in Lahore because of his life-threatening injuries. The Wazirabad police are looking into the matter.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2020