LAKKI MARWAT: Residents of Haqdadabad and other urban areas held a protest demonstration here on Thursday night against excessive electric loadshedding, low voltage and fluctuations.

They got infuriated over power shutdown at 11pm on Thursday night and subsequent low voltage and flickers and came out of their houses.

The protesters gathered at Kargil Chowk, where they closed Lakki-Darra Tang section of Bannu-Mianwali Road.

They raised slogans against local authorities of Peshawar Electric Supply Company and held them responsible for subjecting urban dwellers to excessive outages.

Members of Ranra Aman Jirga, including Imranullah Marwat and Misbahullah, also turned up at the venue of protest and said power shutdowns on old Kutchery feeder known as jail line had become unbearable for consumers.

They said the commercial and residential areas of the urban locality were supplied with electricity from the old Kutchery feeder where electricity theft is negligible and consumers paid their bills regularly.

A Pesco official said that a broken conductor on the 11,000KVA line of the old Kutchery feeder caused an electric outage and subsequent voltage drop in the urban locality.

He said that the company’s workers immediately reached the site and replaced the broken conductor to restore power supply and improve voltage.

On the other hand, police officials rushed to the venue and convinced protesters to end their agitation after assuring them that workers are engaged in removing a fault on the transmission line.

BOY DROWNS: A teenage boy drowned while swimming in a Bannu dam on Friday.

A Rescue 1122 spokesman said the body was found after hectic efforts.

He identified the deceased as Zabeehullah, 19, and said that the body was shifted to Khalifa Gul Nawaz Hospital to fulfil legal formalities.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2025