PESHAWAR, April 2: Dozens of gunmen attacked a grid station in Shaikh Mohammadi area near here in the small hours of Tuesday and killed at least seven people and kidnapped four others.

The dead included four Wapda employees and three policemen.

Several areas of the provincial capital and southern districts plunged into darkness as the attack left the 500kv grid station cut off from the national grid.

It was third such attack on the grid station. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has two main grid stations; the other is located in Mardan.

Shaukat Afzal, spokesman for the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), said dozens of gunmen attacked the grid station, killed two security guards and destroyed the two-storey control room building.

Six vehicles, including a school van, an ambulance and a private car, were set on fire. The attackers used explosives to blow up main transformers and damage three transformers of 160mva and two of 450mva.

Mr Afzal said that despite a heavy loss, which might be close to Rs1 billion, Pesco managed to maintain supply to the affected areas through alternative arrangement and loadshedding was being carried out as per schedule. Additional loadshedding, if needed, would be carried out in 11 feeders linked to the Peshawar University and Peshawar industrial grid stations, he added.

Entire installations in the control room were destroyed. Bloodstains and human flesh were seen all over the place.

Security officials told Dawn that attackers had entered the premises after breaking a boundary wall on the rear side.

A source said security guards with light weapons could not counter the attackers who were armed with heavy weapons. “We heard gunshots and immediately informed the police, but they arrived after one hour,” he said, adding that kidnapped officials used to stay at the grid station till late night.

Those killed in the attack were identified as Wapda engineer Merajuddin, Sergeant Mohammad Zahir, security guards Mohammad Rafiq and Mohammad Sher and policemen Mohammad Fayaz, Yaseen and Khalid Saeed.

Those kidnapped were Naeem Jan, Shoaib, Faizul Bari and Zeeshan.

“The attackers killed two people on the premises of the grid station and five outside the boundary wall after tying their hands. The bodies were found during a search operation in the morning,” the source said.

He said it was surprising that the attackers had escaped unhurt, although there were two police posts at short distance on both sides of the grid station – one in Saphen area and the other in Shahabkhel. Police did not come to rescue the people under attack.

Officials at the Badbher police station said rockets, SMGs and hand-grenades were used in the attack. “We heard six blasts and tried to locate the area but failed because of the darkness after the control room was destroyed,” they said.

A case was registered against unidentified terrorists.