KARAK: Villagers of Talabkhel reportedly beat the officials of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) who were disconnecting illegal power connections, police and eyewitnesses said on Wednesday.

The eyewitnesses said the officials of Karak, Latamber and Takht Nusrati subdivisions suspended power supply to Teran Koi Manzai and Talabkhel villages due to non-payment of monthly bills. They said the policemen were accompanying the Pesco officials when the incident took place. The angry villagers roughed them up and damaged their vehicles for cutting off power supply.

Sources said there were around 60 Pesco officials whom the villagers forbade from disconnecting power supply. The officials including SDO Karak subdivision Hashmat Nawaz Leghari, superintendents Tariq, Ijaz and Mir Laiq and linemen Mohib, Farman and Anwar Hanan were attacked with clubs.

The villagers deflated tyres of three vehicles of the officials and damaged them. Power supply was restored to the village after the intervention of the district administration. The Pesco officials said that DSP Headquarters Bakhtiar Khan, SHO Sabirabad and a large number of cops were present on the occasion but they did not intervene to save them from thrashing.

The locals claimed the Pesco officials were not taking meter reading and ‘inflated’ bills were being sent to them. The villagers said they had resorted to illegal use of electricity under compulsion.

On the other hand, the Pesco officials took the plea that the villagers had not been paying monthly bills since long. Lodging first information report at the Sabirabad Police Station, SDO Hashmat Nawaz Leghari nominated Mohammad Ibrahim, Sorat Badshah, Essa Khan and Irshad Hussain in the FIR for provoking the villagers to thrash the officials. Meanwhile, the District Police Officer Sajid Ahmad has given 24 hours to the village elders to reconcile with the Pesco officials or else they would be arrested.

