Grid station attack: PESCO announces Rs1m for families of slain workers

Rs0.5 million were allotted for the three policemen killed.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) succumbed to the demands of the Hydro Electric Central Labor Union (Heclu) and announced to provide monetary compensation to families of those killed in the attack on Sheikh Muhammadi grid station.

Militants stormed the grid station in Peshawar on April 1 and fired rockets at the structure. They also planted a bomb that killed seven, including four Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) workers and three police officials. Four Wapda employees have also been taken hostage and remain in captivity.

The compensation comes as a breakthrough for Pesco as Heclu had threatened to cut off electricity supply to the entire province if the families of the dead were not compensated.

Pesco Chief Executive Tariq Sadozai along with National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) Chief Engineer Saeedullah Babar visited the attacked grid station on Thursday and inspected the damage.

Babar announced that cheques of Rs1 million each will be given to the families of the deceased Wapda workers immediately. “Employment will be given to one legal heir of every worker killed and Rs500,000 will be given to slain policemen in addition to compensation given to them by the police department,” he said.

Sadozai offered condolence prayers for the workers killed and assured his full cooperation for the safe recovery of abducted employees.



“Restoration and rehabilitation work has started on the grid,” said Pesco spokesperson Shaukat Afzal. “We want to clarify that only routine load-shedding is being carried out in the province and no area has had a power breakdown.”

As for the deployment of security forces at grid stations, Sadozai and Babar maintained that the deployment of the Frontier Corps is beyond their jurisdiction and the federal government has to be contacted for any such provision.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2013.