HARIPUR: Hundreds of industrial workers on Monday blocked the busy Hattar-Taxil Road against the suspension of gas supply to the factories of Hattar Industrial Estate by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited.

The SNGPL had suspended gas supply to all HIE industrial units six days ago due to shortage bringing the activities of most of them to a standstill and causing layoffs.

Workers of different industrial units took to the streets and blocked the Taxila-Hattar Road before lighting bonfire and littering the artery with stones.

Ignoring rainfall, the protesters suspended traffic between Haripur and Taxila for more than three hours amid minor scuffles with the police, which tried in vain to clear the busy several times.

Say crisis has caused layoffs

They shouted slogans demanding restoration of gas supply to Hattar Industrial Estate, halt to the ‘economic murder’ of poor workers and resignation of PTI government.

However, after holding successful negotiations with local administration, the protesters dispersed peacefully.

They warned that they would come back if the gas supply wasn’t restored to the HIE within two days.

Chairman of the Hattar Industrialists Association Malik Ashiq Awan said the HIE, one of the country’s largest industrial estates, contributed billions of rupees to the national exchequer on a monthly basis but the suspension of gas supply had brought it to the verge of complete collapse.

He asked the government to ensure the meeting of the HIE’s gas needs without delay.

Meanwhile, the motorists complained about the suspension of CNG supply in the district for five days.

Former general secretary of the High Court Bar Association Javed Qureshi said gas outages had caused problems for the operators and users of public transport and threatened the livelihood of poor industrial workers.

INJURED: A man was critically injured when his pistol went off accidentally in Hattar village here on Monday.

Nasir Shah was shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital, Haripur, from where the doctors referred him to the Ayub Medical Complex, Abbottabad, for tertiary care.

SLOW INTERNET: The residents of several urban and rural areas of Haripur complained about slow Internet connection.

They said students and journalists struggled to download and upload things from the Internet due to slow connection.

The PTCL officials insisted that the slow Internet connection was caused by a fault in underground cables. They said efforts were under way to fix the problem without delay.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2019