Forest guards abducted, thrashed in Poonch

Poonch: A group of people on Tuesday evening abducted and thrashed two forest guards after they went to stop illegal road construction in Mendhar area of Poonch district.

Sources told GNS that four forest guards identified as Zaheer Ahmad, Munaraw, Mushtaq and Irfan went in the area falling under Compartment number 176. They said the guards went to stoppJCB which was being used in the construction of road from Nabna to Chonna. Sources said the construction was being done on the forest land.

The guards later informed Range Officer Javed Iqbal about the development. The RO informed police and reached on the spot along police party. The RO sealed the JCB, sources said, adding, both the police as well as RO left the spot.

However, taking advantage of polices absence, a group of six people led by Muhammad Rashid attacked the guards and abducted two of them namely Zaheer and Munawar and locked them inside a house. The two others managed to escape, they said.

Sources said the two abducted guards were thrashed by the people and their mobile phones were also snatched. The incident occurred at around 9:00 pm.

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After remaining captive for whole night, the two guards managed two flee in the morning.

Sources said the guards wrote a complaint to RO regarding the thrashing and abduction. However, they said, the RO didnt recommend the letter to police. The RO misled Divisional Forest Officer over the sealing of JCB, they claimed.

When contacted, the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Naveed Iqbal told GNS that the RO had told him that he has sealed the JCB and is in his custody. But, if he is misleading me, I will order probe against me. On being asked about not recommending the complaint to police of guards, he said: If my employees have been thrashed, then the case must be filed.

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