Grid station attack: WAPDA’s missing men released from captivity
All four employees freed from different locations in the city.
All four employees freed from different locations in the city. PHOTO: FILE
PESHAWAR:
Four employees of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), who were missing since the April 1 attack on Sheikh Muhammadi grid station, safely returned to their homes on Sunday.
Militants attacked the station last Monday, which left four Wapda employees and three policemen dead. Since then, four people had been missing.
Law enforcement agencies were searching for the men in the suburbs adjacent to Badhaber. The grid station falls next to the militancy-hit Khyber Agency.
Confirming the news, Skeikh Muhammadi Grid Station Sub-Divisional Officer, Engineer Junaid Khan said: “Fahim Khan, Shoaib Khan, Hafiz Faizul Bari and Zeeshan Khan have been released. I met all of them and they are fine.”
He said he was not sure where they had been released from. They were freed from different areas from where they took cabs and reached their homes, Khan said.
Shahjehan, a Wapda official, added that Fahim and Shoaib were SDOs while Bari and Zeeshan were Sub-Station Officers.
Badhaber DSP Fazal-e-Mula said he had been informed about the workers release. However, he added, “They were not recovered from our jurisdiction.”
Earlier, the Hydro Electric Central Labour Union (Heclu) had warned of holding countrywide protests and strikes if the workers were not found.
The union has also demanded a compensation of Rs3 million for the families of the four slain employees and better security for Wapda employees. “We have consistently come under militant attacks in the past few months in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It has become difficult for us to continue our services when the government and security forces are taking less and less interest in our protection,” said Heclu central leader Gohar Ali.
In the past six years, 110 attacks have been reported at Pesco installations. Thirteen attacks took place in the year 2007, 23 in 2008, 29 in 2009, 8 in 2010, 19 in 2011 and 16 in the year 2012. In 2013, two such attacks have taken place in Peshawar alone.
In the past, however, most of the attacks were limited to the bombing of towers and it was only in January 2012 when the militants turned their guns onto human targets as well. In that month, 11 Pesco workers were kidnapped by Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) militants from the Badabher area for the first time. Three of them are still in the custody of militants to this day while others have been released as they were working for a contractor and not Pesco.
Pesco employees believe they are being attacked because they are government employees and because Pesco installations, being spread out across the province, present easy targets.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 8th, 2013.
Four employees of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), who were missing since the April 1 attack on Sheikh Muhammadi grid station, safely returned to their homes on Sunday.
Militants attacked the station last Monday, which left four Wapda employees and three policemen dead. Since then, four people had been missing.
Law enforcement agencies were searching for the men in the suburbs adjacent to Badhaber. The grid station falls next to the militancy-hit Khyber Agency.
Confirming the news, Skeikh Muhammadi Grid Station Sub-Divisional Officer, Engineer Junaid Khan said: “Fahim Khan, Shoaib Khan, Hafiz Faizul Bari and Zeeshan Khan have been released. I met all of them and they are fine.”
He said he was not sure where they had been released from. They were freed from different areas from where they took cabs and reached their homes, Khan said.
Shahjehan, a Wapda official, added that Fahim and Shoaib were SDOs while Bari and Zeeshan were Sub-Station Officers.
Badhaber DSP Fazal-e-Mula said he had been informed about the workers release. However, he added, “They were not recovered from our jurisdiction.”
Earlier, the Hydro Electric Central Labour Union (Heclu) had warned of holding countrywide protests and strikes if the workers were not found.
The union has also demanded a compensation of Rs3 million for the families of the four slain employees and better security for Wapda employees. “We have consistently come under militant attacks in the past few months in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It has become difficult for us to continue our services when the government and security forces are taking less and less interest in our protection,” said Heclu central leader Gohar Ali.
In the past six years, 110 attacks have been reported at Pesco installations. Thirteen attacks took place in the year 2007, 23 in 2008, 29 in 2009, 8 in 2010, 19 in 2011 and 16 in the year 2012. In 2013, two such attacks have taken place in Peshawar alone.
In the past, however, most of the attacks were limited to the bombing of towers and it was only in January 2012 when the militants turned their guns onto human targets as well. In that month, 11 Pesco workers were kidnapped by Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) militants from the Badabher area for the first time. Three of them are still in the custody of militants to this day while others have been released as they were working for a contractor and not Pesco.
Pesco employees believe they are being attacked because they are government employees and because Pesco installations, being spread out across the province, present easy targets.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 8th, 2013.