OUR STAFF REPORTER SIALKOT - Hepatitis is spreading rapidly as more than 400,000 people in district Sialkot have become victim of the disease which is spreading mainly due to use of contaminated and unhygienic food and poor sanitation system. The total population of the district is 3.4 million out of which more than 400,000 have become victim of hepatitis A, B & C, making the situation alarming. According to the senior officials in Sialkot Health Department, the ratio of the hepatitis victims is more than 12 percent. He said that the usage of contaminated and unhygienic food items is a major reason, besides the poor sanitation system, behind its large-scale spreading in Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur tehsils. They disclosed that most of the hepatitis victims are youth (between the age of 16 to 24 years), married and housewives and their children especially in the rural areas. They said that the Health Department would launch an anti-hepatitis awareness raising campaign in the all the urban and rural areas of the district, as the awareness could also be helpful in controlling its rapid growth. Dacoits loot Pasrur Bar President, others : Three armed dacoits snatched Rs52,000 cash, mobile phones and other valuables at gunpoint from Pasrur Bar Association President Ch Altaf Suhail Advocate and member Daska Bar Association Ch Jamshaid Sindhu Advocate, about one kilometre away from Qila Kalarwala Police Station in Pasrur tehsil the other day. Reportedly, the aforesaid lawyers were coming to Daska from Pasrur, when three accused stopped their car by creating pickets on the road, made them hostage at gunpoint and fled away after looting. The looted lawyers said that the police reached the spot after two hours despite the timely conveyed information to them. Regional Police Office (RPO) Gujranwala Region Ahmed Mubarak Ahmed has taken very serious notice of this incident and suspended Inspector Malik Arshad Mehmood, SHO Qila Kalarwala Police Station, for alleged police slackness. RPO has also ordered a strict departmental probe against the negligent police officials. Meanwhile, some accused broke into a showroom of Syed Tahir Husnain in Kotli Behram, Sialkot city and looted Rs0.5 million in cash and prize bonds worth Rs127,000. In Mubarakpura Sialkot city, three armed dacoits snatched Rs26,000 in cash, gold ornaments worth Rs0.6 million and two mobile phones from a motorcyclist Shaheen Parvaiz and his wife at gunpoint.