KARAK: The people of Kurd Sharif, a remote locality of Karak district bordering Mianwali district, on Friday claimed that the Punjab police had laid siege to their area for the last one week by closing its only land route towards Punjab to force the local people surrender an alleged criminal wanted to them.

They said the residents had been facing shortage of essential food and no-food items after closure of the only road from Mianwali to Karak’s far-off villages of Kurd Sharif and Showanki.

Talking to this correspondent, the affected people said the local elders had held talks with the officials of Chapri police station of Mianwali to inform the Punjab police about the difficulties being faced by them.

However, the meeting failed to produce results as Chapri police stuck to the demand to produce the wanted man first.

They said the police did not let the locals to move into or out of their area which had the only road link with Mianwali district.

Talking to this scribe, Ikhtiarur Rehman Khattak, a former nazim who belongs to Kurd Sharif village, and other elders said they had brought the issue into the notice of deputy commissioner, Karak, Shah Rukh Ali Khan, but no action was taken as yet.

LIGHTNING INJURES THREE: Three members of a family suffered injuries when lightning struck a house in Nari Eidulkhel area of Sabirabad union council on Thursday night.

According to the area police, lightning hit the house of one Azizur Rehman and as a result his son Mohammad Ali and two daughters received critical burn injuries. The house was also damaged.

Meanwhile, the digital X-ray machine of tehsil headquarters hospital, Takht-i-Nusrati, was lying out of order for the last one and a half years and a simple X-ray machine placed there has also developed a fault.

This was stated by local right activists Arshad Aziz and others while talking to media persons here on Friday.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2020