SUKKUR, June 4: More than 35 trade bodies of the district issued an ultimatum to the Hyderabad Electricity Supply Company that they would hold massive protests if the power utility did not end unannounced loadshedding within a week.

The Sukkur Small Traders Association President Haji Mohammad Haroon Memon after meeting of the office-bearers of more than 35 trade bodies on Tuesday night that they had decided to issue the warning over unannounced outages, detection bills and imposition of heavy surcharges.

He said that despite hours-long power outages, the bills were getting only bulkier by each month. The traders wanted to solve the issue through meetings with Hesco officers but they were not serious about solving their problems, he said.

Therefore, he said, they had issued the ultimatum, warning Hesco to end unannounced loadshedding and frequent shutdowns within a week or face a massive protest movement. Hesco itself would be responsible for consequences, he said.

The office-bearers of different trade bodies, including Mohammad Asif Ghouri, Haji Mohammad Shabbir, Khwaja Jalil Ahmed, Ashfaq Chandio and Gulzar Bhutto, slammed the attitude of Hesco officers and endorsed the decision to issue a week’s deadline.

Meanwhile, the city dwellers continued their protest against unannounced loadshedding and water shortage for the 10th consecutive day on Wednesday.

Scores of residents of Nusrat Colony, including women, staged a rally and a demonstration in front of the office of taluka municipal administration, in protest against Hesco and the TMA.

The protestors said that they were made to suffer dual misery of hours-long power outages and water shortage with the advent of summer and when they raised voice police would use batons against them. They demanded an immediate end to loadshedding and water shortage.

SUICIDE: A married woman ended her life by jumping into the River Indus near here on Wednesday morning over some domestic problems.

Her body was not found till the filing this report.