BAHAWALPUR: The katcha gangs honeytrapped and kidnapped a man with cheap solar plates through a woman.

The victim was identified as Mukhtar Ahmed, who had a tuck shop at Mailsi Chowk, Kahrore Pucca, in district Lodhran.

The kidnappers posted a video of him online in which he could be seen in chains while pleading with his family to pay the amount demanded by his abductors. There are reports that an unidentified woman had been frequently visiting him at his shop. It is alleged that she motivated him to go to tehsil Sadiqabad of district Rahim Yar Khan where solar plates were being sold at cheaper rates. When he went to Sadiqabad, he was kidnapped by the gangs.

Lodhran police said a kidnap case had been registered and they were trying to get Mukhtar released from the gangs.

TWO DROWN: Two minor friends drowned in the canal in Yazman on Monday.

In Yazman, two friends, deceased Abdullah (12), son of Muhammad Irfan, and Abdullah (9), son of Muhammad Ghufran, residents of Chak 17/DNB, drowned in the 2-R Dera Nawab Sahib Branch Canal.

According to Rescue 1122, the boys went to the canal to take a bath. When they disappeared, a search was carried out and their parents found their clothes at the canal bank.

The rescuers retrieved their bodies from the canal after over nine hours’ efforts, about 13km far from the drowning site as the canal water was five feet deep and its flow was strong.

The other day, two minor children had drowned in the neighbouring Lodhran district.

TWO BOYS DIE: Two minor boys died in separate incidents in Hasilpur.

Eight-year-old Asad died when a temporary straw ceiling collapsed on him in his house at village Qaimpur.

Nine-year-old Fahad was going on a bicycle when he was hit by a tractor-trolley near Old Sabzi Mandi in Bahawalpur city. The unidentified tractor driver escaped from the scene and the police registered a case against him. Fahad’s body was shifted to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH).

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2025