KOHAT: The civil society activists staged a daylong hunger strike here on Monday demanding provision of MRI and CT Scan machines at the KDA Teaching Hospital.

The transgender persons also attended the protest organised by Tahafuz-i-Kohat movement. The participants lamented that leaders of political parties distanced themselves from the protest, which showed their apathy towards the burning issue.

The protest camp held at the Martyrs’ Square was attended by a large number of people. The elders of the movement accused the lawmakers of delaying the installation of MRI and CT Scan machines despite the fact that Rs50 million had been allocated for the purpose.

The elders deplored that experts came from Peshawar to rehabilitate a burned down grid station, the faulty transformers were fixed in Nowshera, oxygen cylinders were filled in Peshawar, and patients were referred to Peshawar.

They regretted that there was nobody to take notice of long power outages and punish those responsible for two huge fires in the 132KV grid station. The participants demanded making functional the trauma centre. They pleaded for appointment of a qualified nephrologist, an orthopaedic surgeon and a neurosurgeon to the hospital.

TWO KILLED: Two persons were killed and four others injured in different incidents on Monday.

The first incident took place in Bilitant, where a man named Hamad Ahmed was killed, and three others, including a passer-by, were injured when rival groups started fighting over possession of a plot. The injured were shifted to the KDA hospital, where doctors referred one of them to a Peshawar hospital in precarious condition. Later, the police arrested four people from both the sides.

Meanwhile, a man from Hangu was killed in Dheri Banda area. The police arrested the alleged killer.

CARS, FOREIGN CURRENCY RECOVERED: An investigation team has recovered six cars, foreign currency, passports and dozens of bank cheques during raids on the residence of an impersonator of an intelligence agency and other places in KDA.

A statement issued on Monday said fake Major Aamir Hussain of Parachinar had been under surveillance for many days on the directives of DPO Javed Iqbal after receiving public complaints. The DPO said the accused had deceived people from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Kohat, Hangu, Parachinar and Swat. The court had handed him over to the police on a two-day physical remand for further investigations.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2020