GUJRANWALA, May 28: Range DIG Altaf Qamar claimed to have arrested so far eight accused involved in the killing of 14 people in Madina Syedan village, Gujrat, within the fortnight.

Speaking at a meeting, the DIG said the police had also recovered a huge quantity of arms from the arrested criminals. Those arrested include Waqar Haider, Waseem, Sher Haider, Ghazanfar Ali, Ahmed Hassan, Ahsan Ijaz and Rafique Shah.

He pointed out that about 100 cases of illicit arms were registered in Gujrat while raiding teams had recovered five Kalashnikovs, 178 rifles, 88 guns of 12 bore, 120 pistols, 20 revolvers and 1,500 cartridges from the possession of POs.

The DIG pledged that the campaign against criminals and hardliners would continue till the arrest of all accused involved in the killings. Under the instructions of the Punjab IGP, he directed all DPOs and SDPOs besides SHOs to launch grand operation against POs and desperadoes in their respective districts.

Gujranwala DPO Saud Aziz, Gujrat DPO Raja Munawar Hassan and DPOs of Narowal, Sialkot, Hafizabad and Mandi Bahauddin besides SHOs and other senior officers were also present on the occasion.

REJECTED: The Rs60 million water supply schemes of Wasa forwarded to the Planning and Development Department for approval were rejected on the ground that these were not included in the special package announced by the Punjab chief minister, it was learnt here on Friday.

Since the beginning of the summer season, citizens have been facing problems due to defective water supply arrangements. They have been urging Wasa to revamp the water supply systems to avoid further deterioration, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, sources in Wasa pointed out that water supply schemes were forwarded to the P&D Department in Lahore for approval, but all these schemes had been rejected.

He revealed that drinking water was being supplied to 30 per cent citizens by 42 motors. He said around half a dozen motors were out of order which were not being rectified, creating scarcity of drinking water.

They called upon the Punjab chief minister to help resolve the issue on top priority basis because the water supply system in city needed to be revamped. A source said the Punjab chief minister had already announced Rs250 million for the construction of sewerage schemes while P&D Department had also given an approval in this respect.

But the water supply schemes which were urgently needed would not be approved by the department concerned. Citizens said that old water pipelines causing diseases like ulcer and jaundice were needed to be replaced immediately.