KARACHI, June 6: Karachi Electric Supply Company has vehemently condemned the pre-planned violent mob attack by the power dues defaulters at its Liaquatabad offices. The subsequent arson attack on the KESC Liaquatabad customer care centre on Wednesday afternoon, severely damaged the premises which houses the operations activities of the area; leading to a grinding halt of the ongoing rehabilitation and maintenance work.
Customer Services Officer Mr. Azam and Assistant Manager Mr. Farooq were lynched by the attackers and were beaten severely. Two other area office staff members who were wounded by the attackers were sent to the Sindh Government Hospital.
KESC said that the unruly mob of defaulting consumers had demonstrated the worst kind of arrogance and high-handedness in spite of the fact that the power utility had already been carrying out repair on the Al-Karam substation which had been burnt out because of heavy overloading and power theft. As a gesture of goodwill KESC had been providing scheduled power supply in the area through alternate means, post the burning down of it's substation.
KESC expressed strong protest over the mob, who's actions have deprived the Liaquatabad population of maintenance and customer care facilities. The repair work of Al-Karam substation had been initiated and undertaken in the interest of general the public, even though the connected consumers owe electricity bills to the tune of over Rs. 400 million. The repair work, that was initiated on the undertaking of the area notables for their intervention in the recovery of dues, has also not met with any mentionworthy success till date.
However, while the repair work was still continuing on Wednesday and electricity was already on through alternate sources, around 50 masked motorbike riders attacked the VIBC Liauquatabad. After forcing their entry into the offices, they ransacked equipment and other assets being used to serve the consumers, and abused and manhandled KESC employees on duty. Finally the mobsters put the customer care centre on fire which continued for several hours and three fire brigade engines had to be rushed to the spot to extinguish the fire. The employees had no option but to vacate the office in order to save their lives which were in danger.
KESC said that the whole population of Karachi needed to condemn this bizarre act of destruction and wilful sabotage by law violators of the worst kind. KESC said that the abhorring attack had rendered the power utility with not much choice as it could not continue serving the area population after burning out of its main office premises in laiquatabad . KESC asked the provincial administration and law enforcement agencies to strictly discourage the violent trend of aggressive protests which could disrupt smooth supply of scheduled electricity to the City.
