DADU, April 20: Power supply to Mehar town and about 250 villages was not restored till Tuesday evening. The power supply was disrupted after a fire broke out at the Mehar grid station on Sunday night.

The drainage and water supply system at Mehar, Faridabad, Betto Jatoi, Gahi Mahessar, Baledai, Khan jo Goth, Syedpur, Qaim Jatoi, Qazi Arif, Kolachi and other areas was also disrupted due to the power failure.

Mehar taluka officer, infrastructure, Ghulam Mustafa Abbasi said over 100,000 people in the town were affected as water supply to it as suspended. He said water supply to 50 villages had been closed.

A Pakistan People's Party leader, Talat Mahessar, alleged that Hyderabad Electricity Supply Company officials had created artificial problem in the grid station for embezzling fund in the name of repair.

Hesco Superintending Engineer Habibullah Khilji said the instruments and cables burnt and damaged in the fire had been changed and power supply would soon be restored.

The ice and rice factories in the towns remained closed.Schoolchildren boycotted their classes and staged protest demonstrations against the suspension of electricity supply. Load shedding in Dadu, Johi, Phulji, Bhan Saeedabad and Sehwan Sharif also continued.

KILLED: Ghulam Rasool Bhurt, 45, was shot dead on the farms of Niaz Hussain Buriro near Makhdoom Bilawal on Monday. Haseena, 20, was clubbed to death by her relatives over a matrimonial dispute in Khair Mohammad Jamali village near Bhan Saeedabad on Tuesday. Her body was brought to the civil hospital for autopsy.