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American national arrested in Bumburate while crossing to Nooristan

By Zahiruddin

CHITRAL: An American citizen Gary Brooks Faulkner was arrested from the forests of Kalash valley Bumburate while trying to cross into Nooristan of Afghanistan using the mountain track here on Monday morning. Police sources told chitraltimes.com that the American had entered Chitral on 2nd day of current month and was staying in a hotel at Bumburate valley when he went missing last night duping the police constable deployed on his security. A heavy contingent of police rushed to the valley from Chitral and spotted him in the forest of Shiekhandeh after a hectic search of about ten hours and shifted him to Chitral city. Sources further told that during the initial interrogation, the American national told that he was going to Nooristan in a mission to decapitate Osama bin Ladin and his four accomplices who pose constant threat to America. A dagger, a pistol with rounds and night-vision telescope were recovered from his possession. He was declared as dubious by the interrogation team and was decided to be shifted to Peshawar for further interrogation. Sources said that his purpose of visit was tourism and he had come to Pakistan for seven times during the last couple of years.

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PPP leader wants investigation into mass scale corruption in government departments

By Zahiruddin

CHITRAL: Former general secretary of PPP Chitral district Syed Sardar Hussain Shah has demanded of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman to unearth the mass scale embezzlement in the departments of communication and works, public health engineering and tehsil municipal administration Mastuj and bring to book the corrupts. Talking to the local newsmen here on Monday, he alleged that hundreds of millions of rupees have been squandered by the corrupt officials of the said departments in the execution of development works during the last five years in Mastuj tehsil of Chitral. He said that payment to the contractors have been made by the department while hardly 10 percent of the works have been completed on the sites which is a sheer violation of rules and corruption of worst type. Mr. Shah enumerated some of the incomplete projects and named Khandan irrigation channel scheme, Attahk irrigation channel scheme, Torkhow road, Charun suspension bridge, water supply schemes of Booni and Muzhgole. He alleged that the contractor siphoned off twenty million rupees in the water supply scheme of Booni but on the site, not a single water pipe can be seen. He alleged that the same contractor got a bogus bill passed for the construction of Torkhow road recently and used the same money to ‘purchase’ the contract of Mastuj suspension bridge. He added that during the former MMA government, a large sum of money has been squandered against ghost development projects which must be looked into and investigated. Mr. Shah was of the view that the provincial government was promoting corruption because the corrupts have been let loose to play ducks and drakes of the public money. He told the newsmen that he has hired the services of a counsel file application with NAB requesting investigation of the bungling and registration of criminal cases against the responsible.