Militants destroy Pakistan power grid

The Peshawar police chief Imtiaz Altaf said dozens of militants were involved in attacking the power grid station at Sheikh Mohammadi in Badhber.

He said the militants attacked it with rockets and mortars, suspending power supply to half of Peshawar city and adjoining areas.

“The militants first killed a police constable and security guard of the water and power department deployed on main entrance of the power hous,” the police official said.

They later entered the grid station early Tuesday morning and started setting everything ablaze, he told Channel 4 News. The militants kidnapped nine people and killed five of them, later throwing their bodies in the fields.

He said four workers of the water and power department were still missing and believed to be in custody of the militants.

A spokesman for the Peshawar Electric Supply Company Shaukat Afzal said the militants had destroyed the entire grid station.

Among the seven dead, four were employees of water and power department while three others were policemen.

“This 500 KV grid station was the biggest power grid station of the province which has completely been damaged. People may face some extra power load shedding in the coming days,” he said.

The militants had stepped up attacks on security forces and government installations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and adjoining tribal areas and threatened to disrupt forthcoming elections in the country.