KASUR: Five employees of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) were injured in an attack by suspected power thieves in the limits of the Kanganpur police station on Friday.

Police registered a criminal case against eight accused, two of them nominated.

According to police, accused including Yasin and Ashraf got enraged when a Lesco team raided their residences at village Kul to detect power theft.

Meanwhile, some other villagers also reached the spot and exchanged harsh words with the Lesco team. Later, as claimed in the FIR, the accused detained the Lesco staff in a room of the outhouse and tortured them.

Police recovered them from illegal detention and took them to the Kanganpur Rural Health Centre for treatment. Separately, B-Division police lodged a case against four accused, including PML-N workers Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Khurram Sharif and Sher Sharif of Nizampura Road for stealing electricity for their restaurant.

It was learnt that the accused had a history of power theft in the past. Superintendent Engineer Jamshaid Zaman informed a meeting at the Deputy Commissioner office on Friday that 66 cases of power theft had been detected and the accused were charged 372,000 units worth Rs. 1.72 million.

The SE said announcements were being made through mosque loudspeakers to warns power thieves. He said action would also be taken against Lesco staff found guilty in facilitating power theft.

Meanwhile, SE Zaman and three sub-division officers in Kasur were transferred on Friday evening in the Lesco shake-up.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2023