BATTAGRAM: Local residents on Friday blocked the Karakoram Highway in the main bazaar here against prolonged electricity loadshedding.

Traders’ union president Abdul Ghaffar Deshani, social and political activists and a large number of people participated in the protest.

After Friday prayers, the protesters gathered at the Khatmi Nabuwat Chowk on the KKH in Battagram Bazaar and chanted slogans against the Peshawar Electric Supply Company. They also carried banners and placards inscribed with slogans against Pesco and the district administration.

The speakers lamented that the elected representatives paid no heed to the people’s misery caused by excessive power cuts.

They said several meetings had been held with the district administration and Pesco officials to cut the loadshedding duration, but to no avail.

The protesters demanded electricity supply from the Allai Khwar power station, which is generating 124 megawatt of power. They said it was injustice with the local people that they faced prolonged loadshedding despite having a power production unit built on their land.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2023