Briefs

Five killed, three injured in Lower Dir road accident
Our correspondent
TIMERGARA: Five persons were killed and three others injured when a passenger van collided with a motorcar at Katkala in Lower Dir district on Thursday. The police said the incident occurred when a passenger coach (1648 C) heading towards Peshawar collided with a Timergara-bound car at Katkala in the jurisdiction of Ouch Police Station, resulting in the instant death of all the five persons travelling in the car. Three passengers in the van were injured. All the dead and injured were shifted to the hospital.Those who died were identified as Syed Imran Shah, Sajid, Azizur Rahman, Tariq and Naveed, all hailing from Nishtarabad area in Peshawar. The injured included Mir Salam, Hayat Khan and Gul Khan, all hailing from Sheena village in Samarbagh area of Lower Dir.

PHE Dept orders probe against 2 officials
Bureau report
PESHAWAR: The Public HealthEngineering (PHE) Departmenton Thursday ordered investiga-tion against two officers on charges of corruption and misuse of authority.An official statementsaid that the decision to initiate action against the Executive Engineer (XEN) Shahid Mehmood and Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) Sameer Gandapur was taken at a meeting.Minister for Public Health Engineering (PHE) Shah Farm-an presided over the meeting. The meeting also approved est-ablishing of a monitoring cell atthe office of the PHE secretary.

7 kidnapped persons recovered
Our correspondent
NOWSHERA: The police and security forces in a joint operation recovered seven persons who were allegedly kidnapped by their rivals in Jaroba area in Pabbi tehsil on Thursday.Speaking at a press conference, District Police Officer (DPO) Wahid Mahmood said that Janabuddin reported to the police that one Kiramatullah and his accomplices kidnapped his nephew and six other persons.“Acting promptly, the police and security forces launched search operation in Jaroba area. The police recovered the kidnapped persons and arrested the kidnappers after six hours of hectic efforts,” he added.