LAHORE: The residents the Cholistan desert in South Punjab on Friday blamed local authorities for the poor response time that they claim resulted in the death of three young girls who lost their way in a sandstorm last week and died.
The three girls — sisters Tahira (10) and Allah Moaafi (6) from Vehari, and their cousin Suraya (11), whom they were visiting — were playing near Suraya’s home in Toba Sher Wala, Fort Abbas Tehsil, in the Bahawalnagar District when they were caught in the storm. Disoriented by the dust, they ran away from the village into the desert.
“We thought our girls were somewhere in the village and would soon return home,” said Naseer, Suraya’s father. As a result, the family did not begin looking for the girls until nearly three hours had passed and evening had fallen. At that time, they did not contact the police or local authorities.
The sandstorm had erased the girls’ footprints making it extremely difficult for anyone to track them. According to the postmortem report, the cause of their deaths was “dehydration and exhaustion.”
The family finally informed the police the following day that the girls had disappeared, but, according to some villagers, the authorities did not take the matter seriously.
“The police came over, told us to find the girls on our own and then left,” one villager said. “Had the girls belonged to upper Punjab, the whole law enforcement machine would have jumped into action and searched for them. But we are poor people, living far away from the eyes of the rulers. We are the worthless people of South Punjab whose voices never reach Lahore.”
The police said it was not a criminal case. “The girls lost their way due to the storm and got stranded in the desert where they lost their lives since they got exhausted and couldn’t find a drop of water,” Officer Abd Al-Razzaq told Arab News.
But the sisters’ father, Zafar Iqbal, believes the police would have reacted differently if the girls came from a wealthy family. “Being poor is a crime,” he said. “Nobody listens to us. If we were rich, everybody would have come to our rescue.”
The police rejected such claims. “The police were not informed,” they said in a press release. “Instead, we got information about the incident from social media. The police formed a special search squad with two police vehicles, 10 private cars and 50 motorcycles. The squad searched for the girls for two days under the supervision of SP investigations, until the police found the bodies.”
Abbas Raza, Assistant Commissioner, Fort Abbas, told Arab News, “The district administration tried to use all its resources. We could not fly a chopper due to the storm, which lasted for four days. As you know, even flights are suspended in bad weather. How could we have used a helicopter? Nevertheless, we tried our best to rescue the girls but couldn’t find them in time, since they had died even before this case came to the notice of the authorities.” The coroner’s report suggested the girls had been dead for between 36 and 72 hours before their bodies were found.
Residents blame authorities for death of girls in Cholistan desert
Residents blame authorities for death of girls in Cholistan desert
- Bad weather prevented use of helicopter in search, according to police
- Girls ‘would have been saved if we belonged to upper Punjab,’ claims villager
Bangladesh approves new rice imports from Pakistan amid price pressures
- The deal follows Bangladesh’s resumption of direct rice trade with Pakistan earlier this year for the first time since independence in 1971
- Diplomatic ties between the two nations have improved since the ouster of prime minister Sheikh Hasina after mass protests last year
DHAKA: Bangladesh has approved the import of 50,000 metric tons of white rice from Pakistan under a government-to-government deal as part of efforts to stabilize domestic prices, officials said on Tuesday.
The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase cleared the deal at $395 per ton, reinforcing Dhaka’s renewed trade engagement with Islamabad.
Rice prices in Bangladesh have jumped by between 15 percent and 20 percent over the past year, with medium-quality rice selling at about 80 taka ($0.66) per kilogram. Despite increased imports and the removal of duties to ease supply constraints, prices for the staple grain remain stubbornly high.
The deal follows Bangladesh’s resumption of direct rice trade with Pakistan earlier this year for the first time since independence in 1971. In February, it imported 50,000 tons of rice from Pakistan at $499 per ton under a similar agreement.
Diplomatic ties between the two South Asian nations have improved since an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took office after mass protests forced then prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to neighboring India last year.
Formerly East Pakistan, Bangladesh gained independence after a nine-month war in 1971, and relations with Pakistan have remained fraught in the decades since the conflict.
Separately, the government approved another 50,000 tons of parboiled rice through an international tender, part of a series of recent purchases aimed at cooling local prices. India’s Pattabhi Agro Foods secured the contract with the lowest bid of $355.77 per ton.
