MULTAN, May 29: People took to the street in many parts of the province on Tuesday to protest unscheduled and unbearable electricity loadshedding.

In Multan, people burnt tyres to protest power loadshedding and blocked Lahore-Multan Road in Khanewal for six hours and Khanewal Road in Multan for three hours.

Residents of Mahni Sial gathered at Pul Rango and blocked Lahore-Multan Road. A police team tried to clear the road when the mob turned violent, pelted police with stones and made them flee.

Residents of Qaisarabad, Manzoor Colony, Hassanabad, Islam Nagar, Ayubia Mohallah, Muhammadi Mohallah, Mehria Colony, Moinabad and Khadimabad in Hassanabad Sub-division gathered at Hassanabad Chowk on Khanewal Road, burnt tyres and blocked the road. Traders of these localities also joined the protest later.

Police reached the scene and resorted to aerial firing when the protesters tried to burn a police motorbike. The protesters said loadshedding had led to water shortage, forcing them to buy water from private tankers. The road was cleared after the protesters dispersed on restoration of power supply at about 3pm.

In Faisalabad, dozens of people pelted the UAF grid station and a sub-division with stones in Faizabad on Tuesday and burnt tyres.

A number of protesters, most of them powerloom workers, converged on Baba Qaim Sain Road and blocked the road for more than an hour. The protesters besieged the grid station and stoned it.

Stick-wielding protesters damaged some billboards having pictures of politicians outside the grid station and set them on fire. Police remained present outside the grid station.

On termination of the protest, the protesters looted soft drinks from nearby shops and broke empty bottles on the road. Some traders of Chiniot Bazaar staged a protest rally against the power outages.

In Sialkot, hundreds of traders and shopkeepers took out a protest rally and staged a sit-in at Allama Iqbal Chowk against the 22-hour loadshedding in Sialkot city and suburbs.

Traders’ representative Ghulam Mujtaba led the rally.