KOHAT: State minister Sheharyar Afridi has ordered inquiry into the burning of a grid station, which plunged the entire Kohat district in darkness the other day.

Talking to journalists during a visit to the damaged grid station on Monday, he said he had asked the Pesco chairman to conduct impartial investigation to punish those responsible for the negligence and causing inconvenience to consumers.

The federal minister said power supply system was overloaded, due to which people were subjected to loadshedding. He said the problem of low voltage would be solved with the establishment of a 220KV grid station.

Meanwhile, officials said the electricity supply suspended due to fire in the main grid station on Saturday would be restored to the whole district in phases hopefully by Tuesday evening.

They said superintending engineer Tariq Khan was heading a team of technicians from Charsadda, Mardan and Nowshera to reinstall 33 new feeders.

Pesco executive engineer, Kohat, Yousuf Hussain feeders and other equipment had arrived from Peshawar on Sunday night which was being replaced with the burnt ones.

INQUIRY SOUGHT: The father of a molested child has urged the police to order an inquiry into the incident.

Addressing a press conference, Khalil ur Rehman of Shakardarra, said the minor was going to the bazaar when two persons namely Moeen and Dil Faraz allegedly dragged him into a place and molested him, and also filmed the incident.

He said the police after lodging the FIR had sent the accused directly to prison without investigation which was against the law.

Meanwhile, addressing a separate news conference, the relatives of the accused alleged that Khalil ur Rehman was involved in blackmailing the people by making fake molestation cases.

CONSTABLE, PO INJURED: A policeman and an accomplice of a proclaimed offender were injured when police raided their hideout in Sherkot on Monday.

The raiding party of Ustarzai police asked the criminals to surrender, but they started firing, injuring head constable Sajid Khan. The police retaliated the fire in which a facilitator of the PO, Ehsanullah, was injured.

DISINFECTION SPRAY: The tehsil municipal administration of Darra Adamkhel tribal subdivision carried out disinfection spray in the hujras and mosques on Monday to contain spread of Covid-19.

Meanwhile, the tehsil municipal administration, Kohat, installed a disinfection gate at the main cattle market to control Covid-19 spread.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2020