KOHAT: Strong windstorm left a child dead and many electricity poles uprooted, resulting in a long power breakdown in the city on Thursday.

The power supply was disconnected from the main Rawalpindi road grid station to the whole Kohat city as poles fell near the College Town.

Pesco officials said that the power pylons came down to the ground at around 4:00pm when the windstorm had just started. However, the electricity supply could not be restored hours after end of the storm.

Child dies in wall collapse incident

Taufeeq Ahmed, 5, was killed when a boundary wall of a house fell on him in Mangal Bibi area in Kohat.

The local met office said that intensity of the winds was recorded at 80 knots which could cause damage to buildings. It said that the storm passed through Kohat in one hour.

The SDO office, Pesco, said that repair work was in progress and it would take some time to complete. An official said that two main poles fell near the College Town and power supply was stopped to the city. Windstorm and rain also lashed Hangu district.

ILLEGAL TRANSACTION: The FIA and police launched a crackdown against illegal business of hundi and hawala outlets in Kohat district and arrested 12 accused persons on Thursday.

DIG Shaukat Hayat Gandapur said that the operation was carried out in line with the apex committee’s directives to discourage undocumented dispatch and receipt of finances in the province.

He said that the business of hawala and hundi provided an undocumented alternate system of banking for financing terrorism and hiding ill-gotten proceeds of corruption.

He said that six different outlets were raided in the jurisdiction of city sub-division and 12 people involved in the illegal business were arrested.

Moreover, the law-enforcing agencies also recovered over Rs3.6 million cash along with proof in the form of written and fax receipts, cheque books of fake accounts, list of customers and recipients, etc. The arrested accused and recovered cash were shifted to the FIA headquarters, Peshawar, for further investigation, Mr Gandapur said.

YOUM-I-SHAFQAT: To express their solidarity with orphans of the Imam Raza Orphanage Centre, ‘Youm-i-Shafqat’ was observed by public representatives and elders of the area in Ustarzai the other day.

Tehsil councillor Dr Zulfiqar Ali Shah was the chief guest at the function, which was attended by central leader of Ansarul Muslimeen Naseem Abbas and local elders and orphans.

Mr Shah assured his continued support to the orphanage. He, however, also asked the government to support such organisations. District councillor Hizar Ali announced on behalf of MPA Ziaullah Bangash the construction of two rooms and a playground for the orphanage.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2016