Five Children Die As Gutter Collapses

--White Star

PESHAWAR: Five children were killed and six others suffered injuries when they fell into a gutter in a residential compound in Sarband area on the outskirts of Peshawar on Tuesday.

Assistant commissioner Mumtaz Ahmad told mediapersons that five bodies had been recovered from the gutter. Rescue officials said that six children had received injuries. Children from the surrounding houses used to visit the compound for learning Holy Quran in the evening.

Witnesses said that an old well inside the house was converted into a gutter and covered with concrete slabs. They said that minor girls were sitting on the slabs when roof of the gutter collapsed all of a sudden. They said that all the children sitting on the slabs fell into the gutter.

Local people started rescue work to retrieve the minors from the gutter. An official of the Rescue 1122 told Dawn that local people had recovered five bodies before the arrival of rescue team at the site. The compound belongs to Imran, son of Didar Gul.

He said that rescuers searched the gutter and one minor girl named Kainat, daughter of Dr Bakhtiar, was rescued and shifted to Khyber Teaching Hospital. Five other girls who received minor injuries were discharged from the hospital after getting first aid. The bodies were taken to Hayatabad Medical Complex. Peshtakhara police station SHO Javid Akhtar said that an inquiry would be conducted into the incident.

Gunmen kill 5 customs officials in Kohat

-----File Photo

PESHAWAR: Unidentified gunmen shot dead five customs officials patrolling overnight in the Kohat city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities said on Wednesday.

The gunmen attacked the duty officers at around midnight in Kohat city, some 80 kilometres (49 miles) southwest of Peshawar, capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“Three gunmen fired at the customs team indiscriminately. Four officials died on the spot and another succumbed to his injuries in hospital later, “Sohaib Ashraf, district police chief in Kohat, told AFP.

“We are unaware of the identity of the attackers but it's an act of terrorism,” he said.

Another police official in the area, Iqbal Mohmand said the attackers escaped on foot under cover of darkness.

A customs department official also confirmed the incident.

“It was a terrorist attack on our team. All five members of the team were killed in this attack. They hailed from local areas of Kohat and Karak districts,” he said.

Uniformed government officials, including polio vaccination workers, are often targeted by militants who want to overthrow the government.

Customs officials, meanwhile, sometimes come under attack by criminal gangs.

Pakistan has strengthened its anti-terror strategy in the wake of a December 16 attack on an army-run school in Peshawar that killed 150 people, including 130 children.