SUKKUR: A large number of people belonging to the Shaikh community held a sit-in to block Sukkur-Rohri road in protest against what they described as “negligence of the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) that led to the death of a girl and destruction of several houses in a fire caused by sparks in live wires in Vaspur Mohalla on Monday”.

Residents of the locality said that live wires fell on a thatched settlement electrocuting a five-year-old girl, Falak Naz, and causing a big fire that swept through seven houses.

All belongings of the affected families were reduced to ashes, they added. Angry residents of the area took out a procession and blocked the road running parallel to the Sukkur Central Jail-II with boulders and barricades raising slogans against Sepco demanding compensation.

They said that Sepco officials had been ignoring their repeated calls for the removal of the power lines passing across the settlement since the electrocution of a 15-year-old youth, Sarfaraz, son of Ghulam Nabi, sometime ago.

They tried to hold a demonstration in front of the local Sepco office but stopped by the C-Section police personnel.

However, the protesters were pacified by Sepco officials, who assured them of an investigation into the incidents.

Meanwhile, Sepco officials told the media that the power thieves were responsible for the snapping of the live wire and resultant electrocution and fire.