KOHAT: A large number of people on Monday blocked the Rawalpindi road to protest excessive loadshedding, with protesters raising slogans against Pesco for sending them exaggerated bills despite frequent blackouts and low voltage.

The Kohat city and areas near the cantonment are facing acute water shortage due to outages.

The protesters opened the road after the police and Pesco officials assured them to reduce the loadshedding duration.

Meanwhile, the Bangash tribe, living along Hangu road has vowed not to pay the electricity bills from next month after the Pesco executive engineer backed out of his promise to carry out loadshedding according to schedule.

Residents of 18 villages along Hangu road had met with Pesco official, last month and told him that they would pay bills only if scheduled loadshedding was carried out and problem of low voltage and over-billing was resolved.

TWO SHOT DEAD: Two persons, including a girl, were shot dead in separate incidents here on Monday.

In Mandoori area, a man identified as Mosfil Khan, killed a girl while she was fetching water from a well. Police arrested the suspect after registering case against him.

Similarly, in Sheikh Allah Dad area, two persons, Altaf and Nazar Ali, killed Khalid Mahmood over dispute of appointment of a laboratory assistant.

BULLETS SEIZED: A big quantity of cartridges being smuggled to down country was seized at police post on Hangu road on Monday.

The consignment was being brought from Orakzai Agency. Ustarzai police stopped a suspicious passenger coach (LES-7653) and seized 25,000 cartridges of 7.62mm from one Sahib Noor, resident of Datta Khel area of North Waziristan Agency. The police registered case against him and began investigation.

CULPRITS YET TO BE TRACED: The law enforcement agencies have yet to find any clue to culprits involved in separate incidents of kidnapping four persons and killing of four people in Kohat, last week.

An official of Ustarzai police said these cases were a result of sectarian tussle because there were no proscribed TTP-linked men operating in the region.Unidentified men had kidnapped four persons from Landi Kachai road. Similarly, four people of a family were killed while a woman and her two children were injured when unknown gunmen opened fire on a pickup carrying passengers to Bara area of Khyber Agency from Kohat. The incident had occurred in the jurisdiction of Ustarzai police station.

Published in Dawn, July 8th , 2014