SUKKUR, May 4: A food department task force recovered some 30,300 bags of wheat during raids in different areas of the province on Monday which, according to the task force, had been hoarded for black-marketing.

On a tip-off, the Naushahro Feroze task force conducted raids at different rice mills and godowns of Moro, owners of which did not have food grain licence, and seized some 10,000 wheat bags, while in Padidan, the task force raided the godown of a flour mill and recovered 5,000 bags.

Some 2,500 bags were recovered from Ghotki district while 8,000 bags were recovered from Setharja, Khairpur district. All the 25,500 bags of wheat were confiscated. Food department officials said that the government had decided to prohibit those not possessing the licence from buying the commodity till the wheat procurement target was achieved.

It had also been decided to seize stocks of those who did not deal in food grain items as they were allegedly buying the grain for black-marketing, the officials said and added that these people would, however, be paid government rate for the seized goods.

Our Nawabshah correspondent adds: A special team of the food department raided godowns at two different places of the district and recovered 4,800 bags of wheat on Monday. The task force raided a godown in the Nawab Shaukat village, near Jam Saheb, and recovered 2,800 wheat bags, besides recovering about 2,000 bags of wheat from old godowns near the airport.

The district food controller was not available for comment, however, a food controller office employee told this correspondent that the team had raided several places but only two raids had been successful with 4,800 bags recovered. He said that the godowns were sealed by the department, however, no person was arrested nor any FIR lodged so far.

WOMAN KILLED: A woman was killed by her husband in Ishaq Ujjan village near Kumb, Khairpur district, on Tuesday over some domestic dispute. Naheed, wife of Asif Ujjan, 26, was living with her father, Nawab Ujjan, following a dispute with her husband.

When Asif went to the house of his in-laws, he was told by his brother-in-law, Ameer Ujjan, that he could not take back his wife until the dispute was resolved. On this, Asif shot Naheed dead on the spot and fled the scene.

The Kot Diji police, when asked about the incident, said that no one had turned up to lodge an FIR yet.

GUTTED: Four houses were gutted in Faizabad village when a fire broke out on Monday night. The wife of Ghulam Hussain Lanjvani was preparing a meal when a fire broke out that soon engulfed the entire area and also destroyed three nearby houses.

Due to the fire, four goats, four tons of wheat and rice as well as other household items were burnt. A villager, Yasin Khoso, was also injured while trying to put out the fire.

CONVICTED: The judge of Anti-terrorism Court-III, Naimatullah Phulpoto, here on Thursday sentenced two robbery and murder accused to three life terms and fine of Rs100,000 each. On default, they have to undergo five more years of imprisonment.

On Oct 1, 2001, Abdul Sattar and his cousin, Mir Mohammad, were on their way on a motorcycle to the Ghaibi Khan Khaskheli village, Naushahro Feroze district, when accused Badaruddin and Mohammad Ashraf tried to snatch their motorcycle at gunpoint.

On offering resistance, the accused opened fire as a result of which Mir Mohammad was killed on the spot while the accused escaped along with the motorcycle.