Three children die in wall collapse

MANSEHRA: Two girls and a boy were killed and another girl suffered critical injuries when the boundary wall of the second story of a house collapsed in Shania Bala Dodial area of the district here on Tuesday evening.

“Three girls and a boy from my family, all stated to be cousins were buried alive under the rubble of the collapsed building and three of them were retrieved dead later,” Mohammad Sabir, the relative of the girls told reporters.

Talha Nawaz and his cousins Shabana Safeer, Ramsha Sajid, and Sadia, all between six to eight years of age, were playing in the house of one, Mohammad Nawaz when the boundary wall of the second floor collapsed and buried all of them under the rubble. The locals rushed to the scene and shifted them to a nearby hospital where doctors pronounced three of them dead.

Saida was referred to Ayub Medical Complex Hospital in Abbottabad where her condition was stated to be critical. Tariq Adil Khankhail, a local, said the incident happened at Magrib time and mass funeral prayer for the victims was offered at night.

Encroachments demolished

The Baffa-Pakhal tehsil administration on Tuesday demolished encroachments on the Bajna-Peerain road.

A joint team of Baffa-Pakhal Tehsil Municipal Administration and Revenue Department led by Assistant Commissioner Rabia Abbasi grounded the encroachments on the Bajna-Peerain Road.

“We had served the encroachers with notices before the start of the operation to voluntarily remove the encroachments, but they didn’t heed the warning,” Sajjad Haider Khan, Tehsil Municipal Officer, told reporters. He said his department would continue the operation against encroachments.

“We expect the people to remove the encroachments or else law would take its due course,” said Sajjad Haider.

He said that TMA was taking action on the public complaints about the illegal occupation of land at graveyards.