BAHAWALPUR: The Vehari police arrested two persons on Thursday for animal cruelty after they tortured a monkey of a street entertainer to death.

District police spokesperson Adnan Tariq told Dawn that the suspects, Emanuel Masih and Ali Akbar, were the employees of Vehari zoo. They snatched the monkey, named Rano, near the zoo from a street entertainer, Muhammad Nasir, a resident of Chak 12/WB, and tortured her to death.

DPO Mansoor Aman took notice of the incident and on his direction, City police approached Nasir to register a case against the suspects. After registration of a case under sections of the PPC, police arrested Masih and Ali Akbar.

According to the first information report (FIR), when Nasir reached near the zoo the other day, the suspects snatched his monkey from him.At this, the monkey put up resistance while the suspects torturedherto death.

The police spokesman said that the zoo employees had snatched two other monkeys of Nasir in the past too.

MEDICINES: The CM`s adviser on health retired Maj Gen Azhar Mahmood Kayani has directed the health department of Bahawalpur to launch a crackdown on the spurious and fake medicines in the district.

He was presiding over a meeting along with Deputy Commissioner Zaheer Anwar Jappa to review the health delivery system.

DHA Chief Executive officer Dr Tanveer Shah briefed the meeting and claimed that the people in the rural areas, Cholistan and THQ hospitals areas were being provided with health facilities. He said preventive measures to control the measles, malaria, dengue fever, polio and other diseases, particularly among children, had been taken.

The health adviser alsoinspected BVH Cardiac Centre (CC), Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH) and Government Nawab Sadiq Hospital where Prof Dr Shahadat Ali Chaudhry and medical superintendents (MSs) of both hospitals, Dr Aamir Bokhari and Dr Muhammad Hamid, briefed him on the medical facilities being extended to the patients.

POLIO: Lodhran Deputy Commissioner Abdul Rauf Mahar has reprimanded the vaccinators of the anti-polio team for their unsatisfactory performance in the district.

According to an official handout, the DC directed them to improve their efficiency and complete their task by Friday, the last day of a five-day antipolio campaign.

The vaccinators were asked to complete administration of polio vaccine to over 100,000 children, including about 1,000 high-risk children of gypsy (nomads) families, in 28 union councils of the district.