Kohat: 4 dead, 3 injured as unidentified gunmen open fire at car

KOHAT (Dunya News) – Four people died whereas three were injured after unidentified gunmen open fire at a car in Kohat on Saturday, reported Dunya News.

Shakardara Nazim rural village council Munir Khan was travelling in his car along with his relatives towards his residence when unidentified gunmen opened fire at the car near Shakardara resulting in the deaths of Nazim Munir Khan, Attiq Rehman and his two sons, Shafiq and Rafiq.

Three people, including a lady and a young girl, got injured as a result of the incident. Police stated that the incident was the outcome of personal rivalry, adding that further investigation of the incident was being carried out.

Basic facilities for Kohat Shakardarra people

Source Dawn

The Kohat division commissioner has asked the Oil and Gas Development Company to provide basic amenities of life to the people of Shakardarra area under an agreement.

Speaking at a meeting by OGDC officials on Tuesday, Jalal ud Din said Shakardarra needed attention in welfare projects as the company had been pumping huge quantity of oil and gas from the area for years. He asked the officials to solve the longstanding problem of water shortage, construct roads and compensate farmers for damages.

He said the people of Shakardarra had been demanding end to the ‘exploitation’ by the OGDCL and provision of basic facilities under the ‘water for oil’ agreement. “They have also been demanding jobs for their unemployed youth, health facilities and schools,” said the commissioner.

He said the local people had been fetching water from the Indus River which is miles away from Shakardarra. He said water supply schemes were lying dysfunctional due to low electricity voltage.

Protesters block oil supply from Shakardarra

Source Dawn

The blockade of route used for transportation of oil from Shakardarra oilfields here continued on the second day on Sunday as the residents refused to end strike till provision of natural gas to their area.
A representative of SNGPL and officers of the district tried to persuade the protesters to end the strike, but they said that they would lift the blockade only when a responsible SNGPL or government official would give them a schedule for work on the gas project.
The elders of Shakardarra, where huge oil and gas reserves were found in 2001, had been setting deadlines for the government and the SNGPL to provide gas to the area according to the relevant law.
They said that former prime minister Zafarullah Jamali had directed the SNGPL in 2004 to provide gas to Shakardarra areas. Later, Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti also issued similar orders in 2009 and 2011, which had no been implemented so far, they said.
Imtiaz Qureshi advocate told this correspondent by phone that they had set a five-day deadline for the SNGPL to announce work for provision of gas in villages where it was being produced.
Deputy district revenue officer Shahid Ali and a police officer also visited the place where the people had staged a sit-in to persuade them to open the route.
However, the protesters refused to do so unless they were given assurance of gas provision by a responsible SNGPL or government official.
They said that they were experiencing 20-hour loadshedding daily and the gas facility, which was their constitutional right, had not been provided to the area.
The residents said that they would continue their strike if their genuine demand was not accepted.

Tehsil status sought for gas-rich Shakardarra

Source Dawn

ocial and political circles of Shakardarra have demanded tehsil status for their town, saying that the government has not provided even basic necessities of life such as drinking water to the residents despite earning huge profits from the local oil and gas resources.
They said that they had formed an organisation `Sabit Qadam` to strive for getting their rights after they were disappointed by hollow promises of the administration, OGDCL and parliamentarians to solve their problems.
Speaking at a jirga, former nazim of Shakardarra Abdur Rasheed Khattak said that drinking water was being supplied to residents of the town on daily basis through tankers for last seven years and there was no permanent system. He said that work on water supply scheme had been stopped since long for unknown reasons.
He lamented that the area still did not have any college and a hospital while MPA from the area is busy launching small projects like construction of streets.
Former union council nazim Gul Rehman said that Karrappa-Shakardarra road had been damaged due to use of substandard material in its construction. He said that there was no proper drainage system in the bazaar, which turned into a pool of water during rains.
He claimed that the increasing pollution due to massive oil and gas exploratory work was causing several diseases among the residents, but the small hospital of the area lacked sufficient staff and medicines to provide them timely treatment. He demanded appointment of specialist doctors and giving tehsil headquarters hospital status to the local basic health unit.
Another political worker, Riazur Rehman, said that the district administration did not pay attention to their problems despite their protests.
He also complained that their public representatives never raised their problems in the provincial and national assemblies.
Mohammad Younis, president of the OGDCL`s contract employees, blamed the MPA from the area for their problems and claimed that he did not listen to their grievances.
A social worker, Mumtaz Hussain, said that the government had promised to construct a grid station in Shakardarra and the MPAs and MNAs were making announcements in this regard since 2007 to overcome the problem of low voltage and line losses, but the project was yet to be started.