LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), Dec 29: Almost all telephone lines in Torkham are out of order for the past week. The main cable had been hacked by unidentified men a week ago, complained telephone subscribers. They said that they had made a number of complaints to the authorities concerned but the problem remained unresolved.

It was the third time that telephones cable had either been stolen or cut down in the Torkham area.

Sometime ago, authorities had announced the establishment of a 3,000-line telephone exchange in the area but so far no progress had been made.

Custom clearing agents operating on the Torkhum border said that telephone disconnection had affected their business. Haji Amanullah, a clearing agent said that a number of his colleagues and some officials of the customs and political administration had acquired mobile phone connections operating from Afghanistan.

He said that the apathy of telephone officials was depriving the national exchequer of millions of rupees in revenue as majority of the area subscribers had switched over to Afghan cell phone connections.