KOHAT: The employees of Pakistan Railways have demanded eviction of outsiders occupying the apartments in the railway colony here.

Shahid Khan, a son of a PR official in Kohat, disclosed that a large number of apartments had been rented out to the outsiders by the local PR employees who had already their residences in the Kohat town on rent. He said the railway colony was full of outsiders which was in the notice of Kohat and Peshawar railway officials, but no action had been taken against the illegal occupiers courtesy the black sheep in the department.

The employees, who have been denied accommodation in the colony, illegally occupied by officials of another government department and civilians, said on condition of anonymity that when they demanded their allotted residences they were transferred to Punjab as punishment.

They alleged that these people got the houses allotted to them with the connivance of high-ups in the PR.

An employee said: “Despite his several attempts to get a five-room residence allotted to him in the railway colony keeping in view his larger family he could not get the one. He said when he demanded the larger house he was transferred to another district.

“As per rule, the employees whose retirement is near are posted in their hometowns. I am being punished only for demanding a house allotted to me in the colony as I cannot afford to take my children studying in the university and colleges in Kohat to another district at this stage,” the employee alleged.

He claimed that an outsider occupying an apartment in the colony had got him transferred to another district with the connivance of PR high-ups.

CONSTABLE SHOT DEAD: A constable was killed and another seriously injured by one of their colleagues over some petty dispute in the city police station, and the accused was arrested along with the weapon on Monday.

A statement said constable Abbas Khan deputed at the store opened fire at constable Karamat Hussain and head constable Sohail Kamal, seriously injuring them.

Later, Karamat succumbed to injuries. The body and the injured were shifted to the KDA hospital.

After autopsy the deceased’s body was moved to the police lines where his funeral prayers were held. He was laid to rest in his ancestral Alizai village.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2019