MUZAFFARGARH: The Bait Mir Hazar police arrested a murder suspect on Monday who has been in hiding for 10 years.

Station House Officer Amjad Ali said he with the help of modern technology arrested Muhammad Safdar wanted in the murder of his sister Shazia and her two children (Ayesha and Asif) in 2012 in Jhang.

She had married Sarfraz against the wishes of the accused. Safdar’s father Jeena Khan and a brother are also wanted in the case.

OMICRON: The first positive case of the Omicron variant of coronavirus has been reported in south Punjab’s Bahawalpur district.

South Punjab Health Secretary Tanveer Iqbal Tabassum said that the former Alpha and Delta variants testing kits and other facilities have been provided in the BSL III laboratory at Nishtar Hospital, Multan, for testing of corona Omicron variant in south Punjab.

The samples of severe symptoms will be sent to this laboratory for the confirmation of the Omicron variant.

He further said that necessary instructions have been issued to all the chief executive officers in this regard.

He said the man who was tested positive for the variant was in home isolation and healthy.

He appealed to the people that the only way to get rid of the corona epidemic was to implement SOPs issued by the government.

He said that arrangements had been made for the availability of the booster dose for persons above 30 years of age.

RAIDS: The Multan district administration in another operation against the fertilizer mafia unearthed a factory manufacturing spurious fertilizers on Monday.

Assistant Commissioner Amir Iftikhar conducted a raid in Makhdoom Rashid and seized a good number of sacks and sealed the factory.

The owner of the factory, Chaudhry Corporation, was also arrested. The factory owner transferred 500 fertilizer bags from Multan to Lodhran district.

In another operation, a dealer was arrested for inter-district smuggling of fertilizer in Basti Malik. Deputy Commissioner Amir Karim said that strict measures will be taken for the uninterrupted supply of fertilizers. There has been a widespread shortage of fertiliser in all parts of south Punjab.

In Muzaffargarh’s Sanawan market, dealers are selling urea in the black market, whereas agriculture officials said that they were helpless because of political pressure.

Muzaffargarh Deputy Commissioner Syed Musa Raza said that in Muzaffargarh every single farmer would get two bags only from the food department centres, after producing original documents. He said his teams were also busy checking the market.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2022