SUKKUR, July 7 Electricity has turned into a curse for the people of Sukkur and adjoining areas due to long-hours of loadshedding, frequent tripping, low voltage and breakdowns.

Since Monday afternoon, Hesco was subjecting them to power crisis till filing of this report.

Power failures after every half an hour has made it impossible for the people to resume normal life activities.

In this grim situation, the people are also facing water shortage for which water works authorities are blaming Hesco.

On contact at the local grid station, an official said the system was tripping frequently due to some fault in the transmission. When contacted, the chief engineer power of Hesco, Sukkur, Shamsuddin Shaikh, said some fault had developed at 132 KV grid in Shikarpur, therefore the national power control centre Islamabad was directing for suspending power supply.

On contact at regional control centre, Jamshoro, an official said some fault had developed at Shikarpur grid system. When Shikarpur grid station contacted, an official said there was no fault. The system had tripped twice for seven minutes and 11 minutes only.

People of upper Sindh and especially Sukkur have been braving hours of loadshedding for many months. Frequency and duration of loadshedding were increasing day by day, irrespective of decrease in shortfall of power.

On one hand loadshedding has paralysed normal life in the area while on the other, trade and business activities have come to a grinding halt.

Elderly people and patients in hospitals are the main sufferers because many operations are cancelled due to loadshedding and frequent breakdowns.

The situation becomes worst when the hide and seek of power takes place during operation in hospitals.

SHOT DEAD A man was shot dead by armed people in Rajab Daim village near Rohri on Tuesday.Manzoor Ahmed Soomro, 25, was going to the village on a motorcycle when three unidentified armed people intercepted him and shot him dead.

On information, the Rohri police took the body to Rohri taluka hospital for post-mortem. However, no case was registered.

The area people said that the killing was the result of a land dispute between two groups of people belonging to Soomro community.

Meanwhile, 10 people, including two policemen, were injured in a clash between two groups of Bhangwar tribesmen outside the district and sessions court in Kandhkot on Tuesday.

Two groups of Bhangwar tribesmen, who are daggers drawn over a matrimonial dispute, had come to the court to attend hearing of their case.

After coming out of the court, they exchanged hot words and then engaged in the clash, using clubs and stones.

Those injured, including ASI Shafi Mohammad and ASI Abdul Qadir, were taken to a local hospital. No case was registered.