KOHAT: About 500 workers of the Water Supply and Sanitation Company (WSSC), Kohat, on Monday went on a strike against the non-payment of salaries for what they claimed last two and a half years by their parent department, the tehsil municipal administration.

WSSC deputy general manager Tahir Afeef told Dawn on contact that under an agreement reached with TMA in 2017, all the sanitation staff was transferred to the former. Under the accord, he said WSSC was to pay the sanitation staff only 20 per cent deputation allowance, while the TMA was to pay them their salaries.

President of WSSC sanitary workers’ association, Sohail Ahmed said when they called on the tehsil municipal officer to release the withheld salaries to the sanitary staff, he said as the provincial local government department was facing financial crunch it was not in a position to release the funds for salaries.

He said TMA Kohat was the second richest body of the province. He said sanitation workers were paid salaries on time when they were part of the TMA, but the issue of non-payment cropped up when they were transferred to WSSC.

SHOT DEAD: A young man was killed and his uncle injured when assailants opened fire on them in Junglekhel town over a land dispute here on Monday, the police said.

The Junglekhel police said assailants sprayed Umer Farooq, 22, and his uncle, Mustafa, with bullets, and then escaped.

They said Farooq died on the spot, while Mustafa was critically injured. They said the body and the injured were shifted to the KDA Teaching Hospital. Later, the body was handed over to family after postmortem.

The father of the deceased nominated Uzaifa and his accomplice, Shah Fahad in the murder case. Later, the police lodged an FIR under sections 302 and 324 of Pakistan Penal Code.

Meanwhile, a young girl was killed and three women were seriously injured in an attack over a land dispute in Qasimkhel area of Darra Adamkhel tribal division on Monday.

The police said Hidayatullah and his sons, Sajjadullah and Ikramullah, and their cousins Mohib Ali and Hafeezullah entered a house and started indiscriminate fire. As a result, Kainat, 18, daughter of Attaullah, died on the spot, and Yasmeen Bibi, Tehmeena Bibi and Rabia Bibi were critically injured. They were taken to a local hospital, where doctors referred them to Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar.

The police registered an FIR on the complaint of Attaullah against the five accused.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2023