KOHAT, Nov 7: A councillor was given a severe thrashing by the employees of Wapda, Kohat urban subdivision, here on Wednesday, when he went to the office to register a complaint about sending of inflated bills to the subscribers in his area.

The councillor, Inayatullah Khan, was taken to the Liaquat Memorial Hospital by Rescue 15, where he was treated for head injuries and discharged after being kept in the emergency ward for a few hours.

Inayatullah had gone to the Wapda office along with dozens of subscribers who had been affected by the over-billing. When the SDO refused to be of any help, the crowd got infuriated and accused the Wapda employees of corruption and sending bills to the consumers without taking meter reading.

A linesman, Jaffar, while defending his boss, attacked the councillor and started kicking and punching him. During the brawl, the linesman smashed the councillor’s head against the wall and injured him.

A good number of Nazims and councillors later at a press conference demanded action against the SDO and linesman of the urban subdivision.

They asked the higher authorities to order an inquiry into the issuance of inflated bills to the consumers in Kohat.

It has been learnt that hundreds of consumers had been sent bills, inflated up to Rs2000. The Wapda officials said that this had been done to make up for the losses incurred due to power theft.

Later in the afternoon, the power supply was stopped to urban city-I area and rural subdivision for repair of an electricity pole near the Indus Highway bypass. The pole was lying down for the last one year and no official ever bothered to fix it. The power supply, which was suspended at 2.30pm, was restored at 7pm.