KOHAT: Hundreds of employees of the tehsil municipal administration (TMA) boycotted their work in protest against nonpayment of their salary here on Tuesday.

The protest was held at the TMA ground where the employees’ leader, Taimoor Shah, criticised the officials responsible for the delay in payment of salaries to over 250 of the 435 lower cadre employees.

Sources said that chief municipal officer Javed Anjum held talks with the district accounts officer where he was told that the audit department had raised some objections to the release of payment and after their removal the money would be released.

Official says delay due to technical fault

However, the protesters said that the delay in salaries had become a regular practice because TMA had gone bankrupt and was not able to even pay the pensioners.

When contacted, TMA official Imtiaz Ahmed while quoting officials of the accounts branch said that the salary delay was due a technical fault and the matter would be resolved within a few days. He attributed harsh attitude of the employees to the measures being taken by the new chief municipal officer for ending absenteeism and expulsion of ghost employees.

He said that measures were being taken at the TMA to make it a self-reliant body through bringing discipline and increasing efficiency of the field staff.

KILLED: A sanitation worker was killed and his colleague seriously injured when a man opened fire on them after exchange of harsh words over the cleanliness conditions here on Tuesday, sources said.

They claimed that one Syed Zubair Shah opened fire on a sanitation worker, Kailash, and Adnan Masih after the exchange of harsh words. They said that Kailash died on the spot, while Adnan was seriously injured and taken to a nearby hospital.

The killing sparked protests by the Christian community who blocked the cantonment roads. They later ended the protest when police assured them that the attacker would be arrested soon.

SUSPECTS ARRESTED: The security forces and police here on Tuesday arrested 40 suspects, including Afghans, during a joint operation in Kohat city as part of measures to ensure peaceful observance of Chehlum of Imam Husain.

DPO Sohaib Ashraf later told mediapersons that intelligence-based operation was carried out to make foolproof arrangements on the route of mourners. The arrests were made during a door-to-door search in Garhi Rauf Khan, Kharra Garhi, Qureshabad, old Sabzi Mandi and the surrounding localities.

Four persons, required in a case of firing in the air, namely Kashif, Aziz, Umar and Shoaib, were also taken into custody. The law-enforcement agencies also seized one Kalashnikov, two shotguns, one 12-bore repeater, two pistols, hundreds of cartridges and one kilogramme of hashish during the operation.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2015