MANSEHRA: A jirga on Thursday complained that 90 per cent of the areas in Torghar district didn’t have electric supply to the trouble of the residents.

It warned if electricity wasn’t supplied to the entire district without delay, the people would stage street protests.

“In 2011 when our [tribal] area was made a settled district in 2011, majority of tribesmen opposed the move, but we welcomed it expecting the provision of basic facilities of life, including electric supply, but these facilities are still missing,” resident Zahid Khan told the jirga in the district headquarters Judbah.

The meeting was attended by the local tribesmen. Mr Khan said tribesmen rendered their land for Tarbela Dam and even graveyards went under the dam’s water, but even then, 90 per cent of the district didn’t have electricity.

Jirga threatens street protests over lack of facilities

He said the government’s neglect forced people to depend on the electricity produced by turbines installed on streams.

Another resident Mehmood Khan complained that last year’s flash floods destroyed turbines along with many houses forcing people to live a miserable life.

He also complained about a lack of infrastructure and health and educational facilities and said the entire district didn’t have a single government high school for girls.

Resident Gul Zameen Khan regretted that housing colonies weren’t built for the people displaced by the construction of Tarbela Dam.

The participants unanimously passed a resolution demanding an early electric supply to the entire district.

KILLED: A man was killed over an old enmity in the Dara area here on Thursday.

The police said firing by Mohammad Faisal and another man injured Wahab Kohistani and passerby Mohammad Naseem. They said the people shifted the injured to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, whose doctors declared Wahab dead and referred Naseem to the Ayub Medical Complex Abbottabad due to critical condition.

The police handed over the body to the family after the doctors fulfilled medico- legal formalities. They registered an FIR and began a search for the gunmen.

In another incident, a man fired gunshots at Ahsan Kohistani on the Badra Road here leaving him injured.

The injured was shifted to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital but doctors declared him dead. They handed over the body to the family after completing medico-legal formalities. The police registered an FIR against the attacker and began raids to arrest him. However, an arrest wasn’t made until night.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2023