SWABI: Police foiled an attempt of terrorism by recovering a five-kilogram explosive device from the possession of a man here on Sunday.

The man, identified as Fazl Hussain alias Khytay of Shewa village, was arrested along with the explosive device when he was travelling in pick-up vehicle. He was wanted by police in murder and other crimes.

The suspect was arrested during checking near Mansuree police post. Police recovered a ghee canister from his possession that contained a five-kilogram explosive device. Later, bomb disposal squad defused the device.

Police said that he revealed during interrogation that he had planned to plant the device at the building of postgraduate college in Swabi.

Sources said that he also confessed to the killing of Bakhtiar Khan, the commando trainer of Shahmansoor police lines.

He said that the device was handed over to him by Noor Zada, a resident of Shewa village, they added.

Police raided the house of Noor Zada to arrest him but he managed to escape. Police registered a case and started investigation.

RAIN: The last night rain in Swabi has badly damaged tobacco, according to local farmers.

“The rain affected tobacco and devalued it by about 50 per cent. Both national and multinational companies never take interest to buy the rain-hit tobacco,” said Wahid Zaman, a farmer of Maneri Bala.

He said that even snuff-makers bought such tobacco from growers at a throwaway price. In case of rain, the entire burden was borne by the farmers, he added.

Meanwhile, people belonging to various areas complained here on Sunday about prolonged electricity loadshedding, saying they did not know the reason of power outages.

They alleged that the officials concerned were adopting different tactics to doge the consumers, who were bearing brunt of unscheduled power loadshedding.

“When the supply of electricity was suspended at noon on Sunday, I called the grid station after an hour and the staff concerned said that the electricity had been stopped from Mardan. When I contacted the Mardan office, I was told that there was no such loadshedding,” said Mohammad Shoaib, a resident of Zaida city.

The unscheduled power loadshedding has disturbed the consumers, who don’t know how tackle the issue.

The residents of the district demanded of the authorities concerned to end unscheduled loadshedding in the summer.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2014