PESHAWAR: Reacting to the removal of illegal power connections, the people of Badbher area on the outskirts of provincial metropolis detained a team of Peshawar Electric Supply Company, including policemen, for several hours and damaged official vehicles on Tuesday.

However, the local Badbher police station did not register any case against the people involved in the crime.

According to superintending engineer (operations), Pesco, Khyber circle, during a scheduled activity the Pesco personnel and police raided Balarzai village on Monday (Aug 6) and arrested a few power thieves who were getting electricity through illegal direct connections. In the meantime, some people of the locality gathered and tried to rescue the accused and detained the Pesco staff along with SDO and Pesco vehicles.

The team had reached Badbher to cut illegal connections

The SE said that he called the concerned DSP and SP (rural) to mobilise local police to avert any untoward incident. The police, he said, arrived at the site and started negotiations with the locals. It was stated that the police did not take any action against the accused and released them after negotiations in order to calm down the situation.

The Pesco officer said that the registered consumers on Balarzai feeder were 3,957 while those using direct hooks numbered around 1,998. In the prevailing situation, the line staff was also reluctant to patrol the line due to lack of security, according to the SE.

When contacted, Pesco spokesman Shaukat Afzal said that a team of the power company headed by the concerned sub-divisional officer was cutting illegal hooks (kundas) in Balarzai locality of Badbher, but the local people did not let them do their job.

The local people, he said, had taken the Pesco team hostage in the daytime for over three hours, and punctured tyres and smashed windowpanes of their vehicles in reaction. The raiding party was accompanied by police personnel to protect the Pesco employees in case of any public reaction during the anti-kunda campaign in Peshawar, but the policemen also remained helpless.

The spokesman said that the line losses in Badbher area ranged between 92 and 98 per cent and the people were not ready to clear their dues amounting to Rs360 million. He said that Pesco was compelled to cut off the power supply as the system was unable to run in the existing situation.

He said that illegal connections were common in the area and in case of any action the local people used to protest. He said that power supply had been suspended to the area in a state of compulsion, but it was restored on assurance of some negotiators that the dues would be cleared.

When contacted, the local police said that FIR had not been registered against the people.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2018