January 04, 2008	Friday	Zilhaj 24, 1428

MARDAN, Jan 3: For the first time, women of the Hoti tribe came out in the streets on Thursday in protest against gas and power loadshedding in the city, blocking the main bridge for two hours.

People in the city and its suburbs have been suffering power outages and disruption of gas supply for the past two months and despite repeated protests, no action has been taken to resolve the problem.

A large number of angry protesters, including about 100 women, condemned the performance of the Peshawar Electric Supply Corporation (Pesco) and the gas supply utility and said the officials instead of working as public servants acted as if they owned the companies.

The officials did not care much about the inconvenience suffered by the people. The protesters were led by Sarfaraz Khan and Malik Javed Khan.

Women, who wielded sticks and clubs, said that their children suffered because they could not cook and they had to go hungry to schools. They warned that they would come out again in large numbers because they suffered the most because of the disruption in gas supply and power shutdowns.

People also staged protests at the Pakistan Chowk, Nehir Chowk in Par Hoti, Piran Daga and the College Chowk.

Protesters converged on the offices of gas and power utilities and warned that loadshedding should end immediately.

Six people were injured after police baton-charged the protesters at the Nehir chowk in the Par Hoti area.

Protesters condemned the violence and warned that they would continue to stage demonstrations against gas and power outages.