GUJRAT, Aug 13: Seven men allegedly sent by a PML (QA) politician ransacked the PTCL office and beat up its three linemen for not installing a telephone at the defaulted place, Dawn learnt here on Tuesday.

Sohail Butt along with two accomplices reached the PTCL’s GT Road office on Monday and asked lineman Malik to install a number at Ali Motors. They fell into rage and beat up Malik when he expressed his inability to install the connection at the defaulted place. They left the office with threats that they would come again next day.

On Tuesday, Sohail along with his six accomplices again turned up with the same demand, but the lineman, Aurangzeb, also refused to oblige them. Upon this, three accused started thrashing the lineman while the remaining four ransacked the furniture and destroyed the official record.

They also beat up two other linemen — Malik and Ghafoor — when they tried to rescue Aurangzeb. The assailants also snatched Rs2,000 and a wristwatch from Malik and Rs3,000 from Ghafoor and also took away two official files.

The injured linemen told this correspondent that the attackers were armed with clubs and weapons and the principal accused Sohail Butt was a nephew of PML (QA) councillor M Hanif.

They said the family of the principal accused was defaulter of Rs1 million of the PTCL.

The incident created panic among other PTCL employees who observed a complete strike and asked the high ups to take stern action against the attackers.

Civil Lines police have registered a case against Sohail Butt and his accomplices.