January 31, 2006	Tuesday	Muharram 1, 1427

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BANNU, Jan 30: Hundreds of people pelted stones at the Domel grid station and attacked the central jail here on Monday in protest against “unscheduled and protracted” load-shedding in the area.

Several people were injured in the mob attacks. Many protesters were detained by the police on charges of damaging public property.

The protesters marched through different streets and bazaars in Domel and chanted slogans against the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco). Schoolchildren also joined the protest at a later stage.

The rally culminated in a public meeting at the Bacha Khan Chowk and as a result the Bannu-Peshawar road was blocked for more than three hours.

Addressing the meeting, speakers said that “protracted and unscheduled” load-shedding and huge fines had made the life of people miserable. They said that in many areas power supply remained disrupted for 12 to 18 hours every day.

The situation has become so pathetic, according to them, that people cannot even find water in mosques.

The speakers said that although the provincial government had released Rs2.8 million from provincial lawmaker Gul Azeem’s funds for upgradation of the grid station, the staff of Pesco had been slow to implement the same.

They threatened to continue their protest campaign until Pesco high-ups visited the site and promised to resolve their electricity problems.

On this occasion, police officials and elected representatives held talks with the protesters to disperse peacefully and open the road, but they refused, and started marching towards the grid station.

Some enraged protesters pelted stones at the grid station and damaged costly equipment.

They continued the march and ransacked the Bannu jail which was also pelted with stones. They also removed the jail signboards and damaged the window-panes of the police school on the premises of the prison.

When the protesters tried to enter the prison, the jail authorities resorted to aerial firing, which left visitors and demonstrators in a state of shock, resulting in injuries to several people.

The police also detained many protesters who were trying to flee the site, while some were held from the nearby fields.

The fleeing protesters held up a vehicle of a pharmaceutical company and damaged medicines, while some looted a Datsun truck carrying chickens.

The police later impounded the hijacked vehicle and arrested its driver.