MARDAN: A large number of people protesting against regular power breakdowns and prolonged loadshedding stormed the Mardan grid station on Friday and ransacked furniture and vehicles parked there.

The protesters from the adjoining Nowshera district, armed with sticks and rods, marched about 3km and attacked the Water and Power Development Authority’s grid station in Rashakai on the Mardan Road.

They were raising slogans against the failure of the federal and provincial governments and Wapda officials to effectively solve the problem of unscheduled and prolonged loadshedding.

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Security personnel deployed there failed to retrain the angry protesters who barged into the grid station’s building and also into the houses of Wapda officials. They ransacked furniture and record and set on fire the vehicles parked there.

Talking to Dawn, the station’s Assistant Engineer Mohammad Arif Khan said that around 600 people had attacked the building. According to him, the protesters ransacked the control and relay rooms and torched service books and a number of vehicles.

The official said power supply to about half of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Chitral, Swat, Swabi, Buner, Mardan and Nowshera, had been suspended because of the destruction.

“It will take up to three days to restore the supply,” he said, adding that the grid station and its system had been severely damaged.

Mardan district police chief Gul Afzal Khan Afridi said 60 people had been arrested for their role in the attacks and cases had been registered against them under the anti-terrorism law.

He said several police teams were raiding different places to arrest all the attackers.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2015

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