LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), June 27: Hundreds of telephone lines have been out of order in Landi Kotal and Torkhum for more than two weeks due to negligence of the Pakistan Telecommunication authorities, Dawn has learnt.

Telephone subscribers in Torkhum said some lines had been lying dead in the area for the past three months. They alleged that connections were not restored despite repeated complaints to the local line men.

Nisar Ahmad said that he was regularly paying his phone bill despite the fact that it had been out of order for three months.

A customs clearing agent Haji Amanullah said his business had been badly affected because of his faulty phone and said some of his colleagues had switched over to mobile phone connections from Afghanistan.

People near the Government Degree College area complained that their phone went dead about 15 days back when some unknown persons cut off their main cable. Local exchange officials expressed their inability to replace or repair the damaged cable due to alleged shortage of funds, they said.

Telephone subscribers also accused linemen of demanding money for rectifying faults, adding that a group of linemen, mostly from the Jamrud Tehsil, were acting like a mafia in the area. They further accused the linemen of intentionally damaging the phone cables to fleece the subscribers.