Residents block road to protest prolonged loadshedding

MANSEHRA: The local governments’ representatives and people from different walks of life on Tuesday took to the streets in the Sherpur area and blocked the Mansehra-Oghi road to traffic in protest against the prolonged unscheduled loadshedding.

“The Peshawar Electricity Supply company received the all-time high electricity utility bills this month but even then observes the prolonged and unscheduled load-shedding,” Assad Ghani, the Tarangri’s village council chairman, told protesters.

The protesters holding banners and placards marched through Mansehra-Oghi road and blocked that artery to all sorts of traffic after setting tyres on fire for over five hours.

The passengers remained stranded on both sides of the road.

Mr Ghani said that the people of Tarangri, Sherpur, Manipur and adjoining localities were suffering the brunt of the prolonged and unscheduled load-shedding.

“We have regularly been paying our utility bills even then such prolonged and unscheduled load-shedding and lowest ever voltages would never be tolerated at any cost,” he said.

The road was cleared to traffic after the SHO Khaki Anwar Tanoli called officials of the Pesco on the spot and announced on behalf of them that Pesco henceforth would not indulge in the unjustified power outages and address the low voltage issues too.

Student electrocuted: An Afghan national was electrocuted in the Khaki refugee camp here on Tuesday.

Tahir Azam, a student at a local school, was about to leave for school in the morning when accidentally touched an electric wire and fainted.

The locals rushed him to a nearby hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.

Meanwhile, the police claimed to have busted a criminal gang who killed the driver of a tanker and dumped his body in a forest.

“We have arrested the ringleader who killed the tanker’s driver and, to hide their crime, dumped the body in Pulrah’s forests,” Sadaqat Nisar, the SHO City Police Station, told reporters.