Amid the LESCO’s crackdown against power theft, a shocking incident was reported where alleged electricity thieves subjected to torture a senior officer, XEN Kamran Naveed, in his office at Muridke, a city near Lahore. In a statement, the victim, Kamran, claimed that some individuals, allegedly power thieves, tore his clothes and tried to abduct him from his office near Muridke. This incident led to a strong reaction in Muridke from the LESCO officers, where five sub-divisions of LESCO went on strike to protest against the violence. The LESCO officers demanded the authorities to arrest the accused individuals who were involved in the torture of a LESCO officer.

Earlier this month, the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) detected a total of 14,259 connections from where the consumers were pilfering electricity in all its circles of five districts – Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur and Okara – during its 30-day anti-power theft campaign. A LESCO spokesman told the media on Saturday that the company had thus far submitted FIR applications against 14,127 electricity thieves, out of which 13,314 cases had been registered in respective police stations, while 4,653 accused were arrested. The spokesman said that all the electricity thieves had been charged Rs 1.33 billion [Rs 1,331,516,512 exactly] for 29,424,716 detection units. On the 30th consecutive day (October 7) of the campaign, the spokesman added, LESCO found 475 connections involved in electricity theft in all its circles and also submitted FIR application against 473 electricity thieves in the respective police stations, out of which 256 FIRs have been registered while 37 accused have been arrested.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)