KOHAT: Incidents of murder, theft and armed robberies are on the rise in Kohat district, causing a feeling of insecurity among the people.

Some days ago, a man, Tariq of Chakar Mela area of Jungle Khel, was dragged out of a mosque and gunned down by some unknown culprits.

Last month, two employees of Darra Adamkhel assistant political agent office were robbed of Rs2.6 million in posh KDA locality. The amount was meant for payment of salaries to Levies personnel. The police had claimed that they would trace the robbers within 24 hours of the incident, but till date, no one has been arrested.

Similarly, armed robbers deprived inmates of a car of Rs19 million near KDA Town and also killed one of them over resistance and injured three others.

The injured men told police that they had drawn Rs19 million from a bank and were going to Darra Adamkhel. But in this case as well, the police have so far failed to trace the culprits.In yet another robbery incident, a man was deprived of his CD-70 motorcycle at Gate No1 of posh KDA locality.

People complained that, the police instead of going after the real culprits, arrested innocent people. They demanded that the best solution to bring the crime down lied in ending corruption in the police department and ridding it of the black sheep. They demanded of NAB to conduct inquiry against all the corrupt police officers.

The local people also complained of increase in road accidents, resulting in deaths of many people, despite the fact that police had devised a plan for regulating traffic in the city. They said that due to closure of three gates to the cantonment, traffic volume had increased on the main artery due to which it took half an hour to travel between Ayub chowk and station headquarters.

WORK ON POWER LINE: Peshawar Electric Supply Company chief Brig retired Tariq Sadozai has assured a jirga that work on Gumbat power line will be completed within a month.

The jirga headed by former provincial minister Hidayatullah Afridi also included former councilors, Sajjad Ahmed, Mohammad Faheem, former UC nazim Misbahuddin, Din Badshah and Afzal Khan.

The jirga told the Pesco chief that the problem of loadshedding and low voltage and damage to transformers was because of slow pace of work on the old Gumbat line. The jirga also complained of over-billing by Pesco.

The Pesco chief promised the jirga that the work on the power line would be completed within one month, removing 70 per cent complaints of power consumers.

Published in Dawn, July 5th , 2014