Shopkeeper burns boy alive for beating son in Faisalabad

FAISALABAD: A shopkeeper allegedly set ablaze a minor boy over a petty issue at Makkuana on Monday.

Accused shopkeeper Muhammad Asif allegedly burnt Iftikhar Ahmad, a resident of Chak 380/GB. The motive behind the incident is said to be that Iftikhar had beaten the shopkeeper’s son some days ago. The injured boy was shifted to the Allied Hospital.

Pak-China agricultural ties: Agricultural ties between Pakistan and China are must to increase production and alleviate poverty. It was said by University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice-Chancellor Dr Muhammad Ashraf while talking to a delegation of Xinjiang Agriculture University China here on Monday. The delegation was led by the Chinese varsity’s Dean Prof Dr Shi Shubing.

The UAF VC said that strong agricultural relations were vital to combat daunting issues, including low productivity, post-harvest losses, value additions and farm machinery. The VC said that the UAF and the XAU were working jointly on the project of heat tolerant cotton and wheat varieties to identify the genes for climate resilient varieties.

He said that China had adopted a model of small scaled implements for small farmers. He added that the university had taken up the challenges of developing small implements as more than 90 per cent of our farming community consisted of small farmers.

He stressed upon the need to learn from the Chinese experiences in farm machinery, value addition and seed.

He said that the country was producing abundant and good quality agri produces, but we could not able to earn foreign exchange. Talking about Confucius Institute, he said that under the Confucius Institute, UAF, as many as 7,000 students had learned the Chinese language. Dr Shi Shubing said that they would help the UAF to collaborate with the Chinese seed companies and farm machineries to excel in the agriculture sector. He said that under the Confucius Institute, they were imparting the education of Chinese language in Pakistan that would increase the people to people contact and to learn from each other experiences.

Dr Rasheed Ahmad sought help from the Chinese agricultural experts to impart training on food processing, agricultural implements and value addition. Dr Ashfaq Chattha said that collaborative work on heat and drought resilient cotton and wheat varieties, Jujube, fruits and vegetable would pave a new horizon of development.

He said that under the Confucius Institute, as many as 300 students and faculty members were sent to China for education. Three electrocuted: Three people, including two minor boys, were electrocuted in different incidents here on Monday.

Khizar Hayat, a Fesco lineman, was electrocuted while repairing electricity lines at Mamoon Kanjun. In another incident, Faizan Ali, a minor boy of Sitara Colony, was also electrocuted when accidentally touched a high voltage main lines passing over his house. In the third incident, Ghulam Rasool died when his hand touched electricity lines passing over his house.

TWO WOMEN ATTEMPT SUICIDE: Two married women attempted suicide in separate incidents here on Monday. Razia Bibi of Shaukatabad and Farhat Bibi of Chak 232/GB attempted suicide by consuming poisonous pills after quarreling with their husbands over domestic issues.

TWO DEAD IN ACCIDENT: Two motorcyclists were killed in an accident here on Monday. Mubeen Ahmad of Chak 344/JB and Hamid Khaliq of Chak 269/JB were killed when a speeding car hit them near their village.