KASUR: The Kasur City police arrested seven Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) officials on Friday in response to company staffers’ strike which entered the fifth day on Friday.

The Hydro Electric Union started a strike on Monday when the superintendent engineer (SE) suspended an official from service for corruption charges.

On Tuesday, SE Abdul Latif Anjum suspended five more officials and got registered a first information report (FIR) against 66 officials, of them 21 nominated, for manhandling and detaining him and forcing him to reinstate the officials.

On Friday, office-bearers of the Lahore Hydro Electric Central Labour Union -- Khursheed Ahmed and Rana Shakoor Ahmed -- arrived in Kasur and joined their protesting colleagues. They said Lesco officials would not call off their strike until the FIR was withdrawn, arrested colleagues were released and the SE was transferred.

In a meeting with the local union office bearers, the union leaders from Lahore rejected a proposal to shutdown electricity installations in the district till their demands were met. However, they threatened to cut off power supply to the residences of Lesco officers.

Police raided the houses of Lesco officials nominated in the FIR and arrested seven of them, including Maqsood Ahmed, Muhammad Aftab and Mateen Ahmed.

Police also completed the challan and sent the seven officials to judicial lock-up.

As the hydro-electric union stands united for the release of their colleagues, Mr Anjum enjoys the backing of the union of engineers. The officers, including the SE, continued working in their offices on Thursday and Friday.

URS: The three-day Urs celebrations of Imam Shah Bukhari began on Friday with the ghusal ceremony at the shrine.

The traditional kite-flying festival of ‘basant’ is associated with the Urs and there used to a local holiday in the district on the Urs day.

This year, the district administration, however, cancelled the holiday and started a crackdown on kite-flying fans. The district administration had ordered the police to arrest the violates of ban on kite flying.

In the last two weeks, police arrested over 100 people for flouting the ban. Despite a strict ban and a harsh crackdown, several kites were seen in the sky on Friday.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2015

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