KARACHI, May 2: Power riots broke out in Nazimabad and Gulbahar in the early hours of Sunday as enraged residents took to the streets and threw stones at the regional complaint centre of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation.

Police said the irate residents, protesting against a prolonged power breakdown in their locality, tried to storm the KESC complaint centre. They added that they had dispersed the protesters, who had assembled on Nawab Siddiq Ali Khan Road.

However, a spokesman for the KESC said he did not know if power riots had broken out in Nazimabad and Gulbahar. He added that it was not clear if a power breakdown had at all occurred in these localities.

The KESC spokesman pointed out that the main road in Nazimabad was lined with the Rabi-ul-Awwal illuminations. A resident of Soldier Bazaar No 1 told Dawn that power supply to his locality, which had an electricity breakdown following severing of KESC wires in the early hours of Saturday, was finally restored on Sunday afternoon.

"The telephone attendant at the regional complaint centre did not only refuse to register my complaint against the power breakdown but also misbehaved. The attendant made clear that no action would be taken against him if the area remained without electricity for hours," the resident said.

However, the KESC spokesman said that he was informed by his colleagues that the power supply to Soldier Bazaar No 1 and its adjoining localities had been restored on Saturday night.

A resident of Federal B Area, Block 17, said his locality remained without electricity for a couple of hours the previous night. "With temperature rising to 39, it is difficult to spend any part of the day without electricity.

I was hoping to catch a good night's sleep after a tiring week, but the power breakdown did not allow me and my family to sleep in peace." he recalled. A resident from Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Block 10, said that power supply went out at 5.30pm and did not return till the filing of the report late in the night.

He said a similar prolonged breakdown was witnessed on Saturday in Blocks 4 and 10 of Gulistan-i-Jauhar. Other areas that remained without electricity on Sunday included Nazimabad, Federal B Area, Clifton, Golimar, Lyari and Kharadar.