SHEIKHUPURA: The Pakistan Army has taken over 73 telephone exchanges located in the district. Reports said more than 260 Rangers personnel and 241 policemen had been deployed at all the PTCL installations. The main exchange in the city was surrounded by the army, rangers and policemen while anti-aircraft guns had been installed at the roof-top.

Meanwhile, police parties in plain clothes raided houses of the local union leaders who had reportedly gone underground to avoid arrest.

District Police Officer Umar Farooq Bhatti told this correspondent that the PTCL installations had been divided into three categories — A, B and C. Eleven main exchanges are in category A while 13 and 49 have been included in B and C respectively.

SARGODHA: The army took over all phone exchanges of Sargodha on Sunday night.

The armymen has converted the customer service hall at the main exchange into a ‘rest house’ and reportedly started cooking there. The hall had recently been renovated to make it a model customer service room.

SIALKOT: The police on Monday arrested five more local PTCL employees union leaders from Sialkot and Narowal districts.

The police did not disclose their names. On Sunday, the police had arrested as many as seven PTCL employees from Daska, Sialkot and Narowal. All the arrested people have been shifted to unknown places.