PESHAWAR, April 7: The provincial minister for local government and rural development, Sardar Idrees, extended an apology to hundreds of the employees of Town-1 of the Peshawar city district government who suffered tear-gas shelling and baton charge at the hands of the police here on Monday.

The capital city police used tear-gas and batoncharged the employees when they were staging a protest demonstration against nonpayment of their salaries for March.

In January, the Town-1 had obtained a loan of Rs8 million to pay salaries. The monthly salary bill of the town administration comes to Rs9.2 million.

The protesters wanted to submit a condemnation resolution to the chief minister’s secretariat against the district government’s failure to meet their long-standing demands and nonpayment of their salaries.

Heavy contingents of the police stopped the peaceful protesters from proceeding towards the chief minister’s secretariat, resorted to shelling and baton charge near the Eastern Cantonment police station.

At least 10 employees received multiple injuries. They were admitted to the Lady Reading Hospital and Cantonment Board Hospital.

Khyber Road was closed for traffic which was diverted to other routes causing congestions at various places for quite some time.

Later, the protesters assembled at the Peshawar City District Government’s secretariat and held a meeting, deploring the police high-handedness.

They warned the government and the city district government that they would suspend water supply to various city localities for an indefinite period if strict action was not taken against Nasirul Mulk Bangash, the DSP, and other police officers involved.

The emotionally charged protesters refused to listen to the Naib Nazim of the Peshawar city district government, Dr Iqbal Khalil, who came to the meeting in an attempt to cool them down. His assurances and apology did not work as the protesters kept on chanting slogans against the district government.

The employees’ leaders accused the provincial and district governments of settling scores against each other, leaving the poor employees to suffer. They also accused the capital city police of indiscriminate firing on protesters.

Meanwhile, Sardar Idrees visited the site of the incident and the Eastern Cantonment police station to secure the release of the protesters.

He arranged a meeting between Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani and the representatives of the United Municipal Workers Union, including Malik Haseeb, Jehanzeb, Malik Naveed and APCA president Aslam Khan. Following the meeting, the Nazim of the city district government, Azam Afridi, Town-1 Nazim Haroon Bilour and Sardar Idrees called on the protesting employees and offered unconditional apology to them for the police high-handedness.

Mr Afridi demanded of the provincial minister to ensure strict action against the police. He said the police acted unilaterally without his permission.

Addressing the employees, Sardar Idress said the chief minister had constituted a committee to look into their problems and resolve the issue of a delayed payment of their salaries once and for all. The committee will meet on Tuesday with the local government minister in the chair.

The minister assured the employees that the action would be taken against the police officials responsible for tear-gas shelling and the baton charge.

An inquiry committee had been constituted by the chief minister to fix responsibility for the police high-handedness, said Sardar Idrees.

The minister, the district Nazim and the Town-1 Nazim assured the employees that they would be paid their salaries on Tuesday and that from now on they would get their salaries on time.

The chairman of the United Municipal Workers Union, Malik Naveed Ahmed, announced that the employees would resume their protest campaign if their other demands, including suspension of the police officials responsible, were not met by Thursday.

Later, the union announced suspension of their protest campaign for two days during which water supply would be restored.

The employees had on Sunday stopped operating 100 tubewells, out of over 160, suspending water supply to various localities.

The minister announced that the government would bear the expenses incurred on medical treatment of those injured in the incident.