GILGIT, Jan 19: The subscribers and PCO owners in the Northern Areas have flayed the issuance of false inflated bills by the Special Communication Organization (SCO), sources told Dawn on Saturday.

They said that in Ramazan, the SCO had announced a special package for its consumers and fixed quarter rates after 6 pm and half rates after 3 pm. But the SCO charged half rates after 6 pm causing millions of rupees loss to the public call offices as PCO owners had charged quarter rates from their customers after 6 pm.

An official at the SCO said the erroneous bills had been issued owing to a technical fault in the computer of the billing section.

The Citizens and Human Rights Forum of Northern Areas has also protested against the inflated bills issued by SCO.

killers arrested: Gilgit police on Saturday claimed to have solved a mystery about the death of a policeman who was killed in March 2001 in Kargah Nallah, 15kms off Gilgit.

Hafeez-ur-Rahman, Incharge of Gilgit CIA, said that the victim Muhammad Saleem was poisoned on March 3, 2001 by Amnaullah, Auqil Khan, Khalique Jan, Sher Nawaz and Nadeem— all residents of Baseen, Gilgit district.