Motive unknown: WAPDA official found dead in Swabi

Brother says he had gone to read electricity meters in Jalsai village a day earlier.

SWABI: An employee of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) was gunned down by unidentified people on Wednesday in Chota Lahor, Swabi.

According to a police official, a pedestrian informed the police in the morning that he had spotted a body lying by the roadside in Jalsai village. The police rushed to the site and shifted the body to the police station for identification.

The policeman further said later in the day Muhammad Idrees arrived at Chota Lahor police station and claimed the deceased was his brother Muhammad Younas. According to Idrees, the deceased was a Wapda official and had gone to Jelsai village on Tuesday for work.

“He had gone to the village to check electricity meter readings, but when the family tried to contact him on his cell phone, there was no response,” the policeman said while quoting Idrees. The family also contacted the local Wapda office but no one there knew of Younas’s whereabouts, the brother explained.

The police official added Younas’s body was found the next day, however, his motorbike, cell phone, Wapda meter reading record book and cash were all missing.

Younas was laid to rest in his hometown.

A case has been filed against unidentified alleged robbers and further investigation is under way.

Meanwhile, in a protest against the Wapda official’s death, Gohar Taj, the president of the local All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Union, demanded the arrests of the culprits within a week. He warned if the murderers are not arrested they would cut off power supply to the district in protest.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2014.