SIALKOT, July 7: Electricity supply to Daska and its surrounding areas remained suspended for several hours on Wednesday.

People have been braving hot and humid weather as the main transformer of the Glotiyaan-Daska grid station went out of order about 17 days ago. They have been protesting against the Gepco for the last several days but to no avail.

Meanwhile, the protesting traders and people urged the Wapda chairman to hold an inquiry into the burning of 15 MVA transformer and several hours' power suspension daily. Office-bearers of various traders organizations alleged that due to the negligence of the Gepco (Wapda) staff the transformer went out of order.

They held XEN Javed Iqbal Ghuman responsible for the damage to the transformer. The Daska ASP, in the meantime, held an inquiry on the application of Daska Gepco XEN against several protesters. However, the inquiry officer has not yet finalized his report.

six arrested: Daska police arrested six alleged criminals after a two-hour encounter while a proclaimed offender managed to escape on Wednesday morning. Police raided the house of Imran Akram Khan in Aadamkey Cheema village to arrest proclaimed offender Maqsood alias Mooda. He, however, dodged the police and fled from the scene.

His accomplices Imran, Rashid Khan, Ashraf, Usman, Zaheer and Azmat opened fire on the police party. Police returned the complement and a crossfire continued for two hours after which they surrendered.

Meanwhile, on the order of Sialkot DPO, the Daska city police have sent CIA Constable Rana Mumtaz to jail and dismissed police Head-Constable Habib Butt on the charges of having close association with proclaimed offenders and providing them shelter. The DPO transferred the staff of seven police stations of Daska tehsil and suspended Khalid, muharrar of Daska city police station.