KOHAT, March 9: The police elite force arrested 39 criminals, including five proclaimed offenders, in different parts of the district on Friday. District police officer Mubarek Zeb Khan said in a statement that search operations were being carried out in different areas to arrest anti-social elements and maintain law and order in the district.

It said that police arrested five proclaimed offenders identified as Khalid Khan, Javed Alam, Laice Khan and Piao Gul during the operation. Five small machineguns, nine shotguns, 17 pistols and hundreds of cartridges were also recovered from the seized from the criminals. The criminals have been handed over to the respective police stations for further investigations, said the statement.

LOADSHEDDING: The Farmers Association of Bilitang town here has complained that standing crops in the area are being destroyed due to excessive loadshedding and subsequent lack of water and urged the government to ask the Pesco officials to mend their ways.

The members of the association, including Ashraf, Misal Khan, Saadullah and Anwar Hussain, on Friday criticised the local officials of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company for not paying attention to their repeated complaints against prolonged loadshedding. They said that in case of any fault in transformers the Pesco staff demanded bribe for repairs, which was injustice with them because they were regularly paying their bills.

They alleged that the meter readers were not taking reading from the meters and the Pesco sent them inflated bills. They demanded of the company’s executive officer in Kohat to order deduction of extra units from the bills.

In another meeting, elders of the area criticised suspension of work on the gas supply project and appealed to the government for early start of work. They said that the scheme had been inaugurated thrice during past six years, but the work was still pending.