MANSEHRA, Jan 18: Six masked robbers deprived the passengers of four vehicles of cash and valuables on Janglain Road in Chakia area on Tuesday.

The armed robbers also took away two vehicles with them. The passengers said that robbers blocked the road with big rocks and looted the passengers at gunpoint. “They fled with two looted vehicles after looting us,” they added.

The victims, headed by Mohammad Atif, lodged an FIR with the Sadar police, stating that they were going to Chakia from Mansehra in four vehicles.

Most of the looted people run businesses in Mansehra. They were going back to homes after shutting their businesses.

They said that the robbers threatened them of dire consequences in case of resistance.

They said that robbers deprived them of Rs100,000 cash, cellular phone sets, wristwatches and other valuables. ELECTRICITY:

The residents of Dassu and Kamila threatened to block the Karakoram Highway for indefinite period if government failed to provide electricity to the areas.

In this connection a meeting was held at Dassu on Tuesday to review the earlier deadline of January 22, set for the government to provide electricity to the areas. People from different walks of life attended the meeting.

Afsar Khan, an elder of the area, told the meeting that it was embarrassing for the people of Dassu and Kamila that Puttan, a tehsil headquarters, was provided with the electricity by Wapda many years ago the two main cities of Kohistan district were deprived of it since the creation of the country.

He said that some two years ago government had released funds to link Dassu and Kamila with the Puttan grid station but work on the project could not be started.

The participants of the meeting said that though they withdrew their earlier call to hold demonstration after the DCO assured them that he would take up the issue with the government, yet that time they would not postpone their agitation.

They said that people of the areas used to generate electricity through small dams but almost all dams were destroyed in the recent floods and they were without electricity since then.