MULTAN, Sept 7: A woman and her granddaughter were killed as roof of their house collapsed in Grass Mandi area here on Wednesday. The house of postman Liaquat was under-construction, but he shifted his family there only to avoid paying for their rented house. His mother Sharifaan Bibi and daughter Asma (6) were asleep when the roof caved-in. Asma died on the spot while her grandmother died in hospital.

DEMO: Residents of Mumtazabad Colony staged a demonstration on Wednesday

to protest against the unscheduled and prolonged power suspension.

The protesters gathered outside the office of the Mepco’s assistant manager (operation) at night, chanted slogans against Wapda authorities and burnt used tyres. They also pelted stones on the Mepco office and a fire-brigade lorry which came there to extinguish fire of burnt tyres. Fireman Sattar Ahmed reportedly sustained injuries.

Protesters told reporters that power suspension had become a permanent feature of the area paralyzing their daily life. The power supply suspended on Wednesday morning had not been restored till filing of this report at 10pm.

Mepco officials said the power supply had to be suspended from 6am to 1pm for installation of new transformer at the Qasimpur grid station, but some technical problem cropped up which had yet to be rectified.

They said efforts were afoot to restore the power supply to the area through alternative means.