Three Mansehra SHOs suspended over alleged links to timber smugglers

MANSEHRA: Hazara Deputy Inspector General of Police Nasir Mehmood Satti has suspended three station house officers and a muharrar in Mansehra over allegations that they were sheltering timber smugglers, while a committee headed by the district police officer has been formed to investigate the matter.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, the DIG said the action was taken after public complaints alleged that the officials were colluding with smugglers and were involved in deforestation and timber smuggling.

The suspended officials are Asim Bukhari, SHO of Shinkiari police station, Faisal Khalil, SHO of Battal police station, Shujahat Qureshi, SHO of Battle police station, and Mohammad Waseem, a muharrar at Shinkiari police station.

According to the police department, all four officials were instructed to report to the police lines after their suspension and the initiation of the inquiry.

Mr Satti said Hazara police were playing a leading role in the government’s campaign to curb deforestation and timber smuggling across the division, adding that this was why disciplinary action had been taken against the four personnel.

“I have suspended four personnel in Mansehra on public complaints that they are allegedly in collusion with smugglers and involved in deforestation and timber smuggling,” he told reporters.

Balakot hospital reconstructed

In a separate development, Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Balakot, which was destroyed in the 2005 earthquake, has been rebuilt after a delay of more than two decades.

Munir Hussain Lughmani, the provincial lawmaker from the Balakot constituency, said at an inaugural ceremony on Saturday that residents had remained without a quality healthcare facility since the hospital was reduced to rubble in the earthquake.

He said the 120-bed hospital building had now been reconstructed at a cost of Rs920 million.

Mr Lughmani said Chief Minister Sohail Afridi could not attend the ceremony because of an official engagement. He added that, with the tourism season having started in Kaghan Valley, the emergency, gynaecology and outpatient departments were being inaugurated for now, while the chief minister would later visit to open the remaining sections.

According to the MPA, the government had originally approved Rs530 million for the hospital’s reconstruction in 2013. However, he said work was halted soon after the groundbreaking because of a shortage of funds, which pushed the estimated cost up to Rs920 million.

Mr Lughmani said that after becoming an MPA, he worked to have the project cost revised, and added that former chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur and current Chief Minister Sohail Afridi played an important role in the approval and release of the revised funds.

“The people of Balakot remained deprived of a quality healthcare facility since the hospital was reduced to ruins in the devastating earthquake some two decades ago, but now this 120-bed state-of-the-art building has been reconstructed at Rs920 million,” he said at the ceremony.