TAXILA, May 27: Residents of Hassanabdal and surrounding localities on Sunday gave their ire a vent by blocking inter-provincial Rawalpindi-Peshawar G.T. Road for over two hours.

They took out protest rally against unabated, unscheduled and hours-long power outages that they claimed had crippled civic and commercial life in the area.

While some areas had also been without electricity for the last two days as their transformers were removed by officials after they developed some technical faults.

The over 16-hour power outages in various urban localities invited masses’ wrath as they  went on rampage, burnt tyres in the middle of the G.T. Road near Burhan Bridge and put traffic out of gear for more than two hours.

Carrying placards, banners, sticks and clubs the demonstrators belonging to various urban localities chanted slogans against the Wapda officials for not redressing their grievances.

They also chanted anti-government slogans. Protesters led by the local social figure Liaquat Khan said that massive power outages badly affected all segments of society particularly the traders, shopkeepers, office-goers, students, businessmen and even the under-treatment patients at various public and private hospitals.

They claimed they had lodged a number of complaints with the Wapda authorities, but no one paid any heed to their complaints.

“We have been passing sleepless nights for the last many days”, a protester said.

Owing to the protest, the motorists had to face a great deal of inconvenience. On getting information, heavy contingent of police led by ASP Shahzad Nadeem Bukhari flanked by Wapda authorities reached the spot and after successful negotiations restored the flow of traffic.

When contacted, an Iesco official said increase in shortfall was to blame as the demand of the domestic and commercial consumers had increased with rising level of mercury.