KOHAT, June 11: Hundreds of violent men and women again went on rampage in the remote Shakardarra town, some 100km south east of here, and put on fire the UNDP and union council offices on the second consecutive day on Thursday to protest against the non-supply of potable water to the locals for the last one week.

The local administration called out the Frontier Constabulary to control the situation and deployed the force at the oil and gas plant, and the residence of town Nazim Dr Sharif. Police along with the FC personnel was still patrolling the area till filing of this report on Thursday night.

A mob led by MMA leader and provincial assembly candidate Mohammad Iqbal Fana was baton charged by the police that also fired tear gas to quell the riots. Resuming their protests on Thursday afternoon, the people first attacked the gas plant near Kandao and broke its main gate. But the police stopped them from causing any damage to the installation.

After this attempt, they marched towards the UNDP offices where they torched the offices and damaged air conditioners. They also set motorcycles on fire and broke telephone sets and photo state machines in the union council office.

The SSP, who reached the area on Thursday after receiving reports that situation was still out of control since Wednesday evening, ordered the police to baton charge the crowd and fired tear gas shells. As a result Mohammad Iqbal Fana and a few other people were seriously injured and admitted in the Shakardarra hospital, police told Dawn on Thursday night.

However, the protesters dispersed when the district coordination officer, district Naib Nazim Haji Sardar Khan and other senior officials of the OGDC assured them that water supply would be resumed within a few days. The main road was opened for traffic at 4.30 pm.

A police officer told Dawn on telephone from Shakardarra on Thursday that the trouble started when a large number of people went to Nazim Abdur Rashid Khattak to lodge their protest against the acute shortage of water.

They were told that the administration was trying to solve the problem and that despite the release of Rs5 million by the OGDC, the town council had failed to install more water pumps in the area.

The mob got infuriated and attacked the house of town Nazim Dr Sharif, demanding him to install the pumps within 24 hours. The son of the town nazim misbehaved with the thirsty people, after which they attacked the OGDC offices and blocked the main road by putting a large number of tents on it.

The OGDC had promised to provide potable water to the whole population of the area after the discovery of huge oil and gas reservoirs six years back. But the OGDC made temporary arrangements to pump water from the Indus River through three pumps to the town, later releasing Rs5 million to the town council to solve the problem on permanent basis. Last week all the three water pumps developed some fault creating the shortage of water.