November 15, 2008	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 16, 1429

PESHAWAR, Nov 14: Owing to militancy, 24 telephone exchanges have been closed in different parts of the Frontier province and three of them have been blown up, sources said.

An official source in the Pakistan Telecommunication Company told Dawn that due to closure of the exchanges people were facing hardships because in some areas cellphones were also not working.

The government, he said, had failed to ensure protection of the exchanges and staff concerned and that was why employees had fled their duties.

He said that in the Swat district only the Mingora city telephone exchange was functional and the rest were closed. He said there was no proper security system for the exchanges, which were vulnerable to militants’ attacks.

He said the people of Kabal, Matta, Khwazakhela and upper Swat had time and again visited offices of officials concerned but they did not agree to reopen the exchanges till normalcy returned to the areas.

When contacted, a PTCL director, Noor Wali, told Dawn that a 900-line exchange in the Pasni area of the Adezai Union Council was blown up in August. Another 1000-line telephone exchange in Mattani was blown up on Aug 21. He said the building of the telephone exchange had been destroyed as militants had planted explosives beneath the building’s foundations.

The 500-line telephone exchange in Zangali and the 1300-line exchange in Badbher, he said, were functional where security guards and police had kept vigilance on the movement of suspected people.

He said the exchange in Charbagh, Swat, was also blown up and later its main tower was destroyed, which forced the employees to leave the area.

About the opening of the closed exchanges in Swat, he said that in the prevailing circumstances the employees were not ready to perform their duties and added that the services would be restored soon after the situation became normal.

The official said destruction of the exchanges had caused huge losses to the company and reconstruction of the buildings would take time.

However, he said, wireless local loop had been installed in Adezai because it was difficult to connect the area through cable system.

Work on a containerised telephone exchange, he said, was in progress in Mattani and people would be able to get the facility in couple of days.

About security plan for the rest of telephone exchanges in the province, the official concerned, Colonel Sher Khan, said the PTCL had acquired services of private security guards and also coordinated with the local police in this regard.

Area people said they had time and again contacted PTCL officials to install even a temporary system so that they could have contacts with their relatives in other cities and countries.

Mattani Union Council Nazim Asad Khan said cellphones were not working properly in many areas.

He said the law and order situation in the area had improved to a great extent and PTCL officials should provide the facility as soon as possible. He suggested that a containerised exchange should be installed in Hussainabad or other safe place in the area.