Killed over land

PESHAWAR, March 23: A property dispute claimed life of a person and caused wounds to five others at Pando area in Peshawar on Friday.

An official of the Pando police said two rival groups known as Malik and Taj groups, traded fire over the ownership of a residential plot in the area. The deceased was identified as Alif Gul, son of Manaf Gul. The injured persons were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital where they were stated to be in stable condition. Two cases were registered at the Pando police station. However, the accused could not be arrested. —Bureau Report

Pensioners’ woes

KARAK, March 23: The Pensioners’ Welfare Association, Karak chapter has demanded increase in pension according to the price hike, and medical allowance.

This was demanded in a meeting held at Terri on Friday chaired by its president Mian Saadat Shah.

The pensioners expressed concern over the unprecedented price hike and said another proposed raise in prices of petroleum products would further push up prices of daily use items.

They complained the government was not heeding the problems of the pensioners and demanded their pension be increased annually as they depended on the pension amount. —Correspondent  

Varsity campus upgraded

PESHAWAR, March 23: Chief Minister Ameer Haidar Khan Hoti has approved upgrading sub-campus of the Hazara University in Haripur to university level and providing Rs1.5 million as one-time grant.

It merits a mention here that a sub-campus of the university was established in Dhudyal in the building of former Forest Development Corporation in 2008. The campus has a total area of 235 kanal and its infrastructure is sufficient for fulfilling needs of the university.

A statement issued here on Friday said as Hazara University was located at a distance of 100 kilometers from Dhudyal and running affairs of Dhudyal campus was a difficult task, that is why the government approved upgradating the sub-campus to university level to facilitate the people. —Bureau Report

Two killed in Swabi

SWABI, March 23: Two people, including a child, were killed and a woman was injured in two separate incidents on Friday, said the police.

A man, identified as Faramosh Khan, was shot in the far-flung Parmoli village. Registering an FIR in Kalu Khan police station, brother of the deceased said the killing followed an exchanged of hot words a few days ago between the victim and a man of the same village. A woman was also injured in the firing.

A child was knocked down by a speedy passenger coach while crossing the Swabi-Topi road near Qazi Abad. The erring driver fled after the incident. Swabi police impounded the vehicle and registered an FIR against him. —Correspondent

Demo against power outages

MARDAN, March 23: Hundreds of activists of PTI on Friday took to the streets against unscheduled and prolonged loadshedding in the city. They gave 48-hours ultimatum to high ups of Wapda to issue a schedule for the loadshedding as well as reduce its duration otherwise they would storm the agency’s office in the city.

The division president and general secretary of PTI Brig (retd) Ismail Khan and Nasir Khan led the procession of party workers and residents of the affected areas. They converged at the Pakistan chowk after passing through various markets.

The protesters, while carrying banners and placards inscribed with anti-government and anti-WAPDA slogans, demanded of the federal and provincial governments to step down if they could not resolve the problem of electricity shortage. —Correspondent

Withheld salaries

CHITRAL, March 23: The lady health workers and supervisors have demanded of the federal government to release their salaries withheld for last five months.

Talking to media persons here on Friday, the leaders Zahida Muzafar, Shahina Mahmud, Samina Sardar, Sahira Banu and others lamented that they were deprived of the facilities being enjoyed by a government servant, adding their services were yet to be regularised despite working for 17 years.

They said their monthly salary was fixed at paltry Rs7,000, which was not even paid regularly. They said they were discharging their duties in remote areas of Chitral where hospital and doctors were not available. —Correspondent

Cylinder blast injures two

TIMERGARA, March 23:  Two girl students of the University of Malakand suffered burn injuries when a gas cylinder of their hostel room exploded on Friday, sources told Dawn.

Sources said girl students identified as Tabbasum, a resident of Chitral and Nazia of Timergara, were badly injured in the blast.

Both the students were taken to the district headquarters hospital Batkhela from where they were referred to Peshawar.

Talking to Dawn public relations officer of the varsity Dost Mohammad said though the condition of the injured students was stable, they were shifted to Peshawar for better treatment. —Correspondent  

Probe into prisoner’s death

PESHAWAR, March 23: The government has ordered an enquiry into the death of a convicted prisoner Mujahid Shah of Charsadda.

The home department has appointed Mr Bashir Ahmed, section officer (complaints/enquiries), to conduct the inquiry into the case and submit report at the earliest.

A statement issued on Friday said the prisoner was transferred to central prison Haripur from central prison Peshawar on Jan 29, 2012. He was admitted to jail hospital on the day of his transfer and then referred to DHQ hospital Haripur for emergency treatment by the medial officer wherefrom he was onward referred to Ayub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad on Feb 6. He had died there on Feb 20 in the presence of his brothers. Cause of the death was stated to be Fournier’s gangrene and malonies gangrene. —Bureau Report  

Security on high alert

PESHAWAR, March 23: Friday prayers in the provincial metropolis were offered under tight security where the security personnel remained alert to avert any untoward incident.Police said there were still reports of possible attempts of sabotage and thus all the SHOs had been directed to maintain security on high alert in their respective limits.

It was observed that the police patrolling continued in some areas of the cantonment area, but the checking of vehicles was next to nil. The police personnel at some check points linking the suburban localities were seen checking the vehicles on random basis. Some roads remained blocked in the cantonment during Friday prayer but due to the public holiday the traffic also remained very thin. —Bureau Report