RAWALPINDI - Fire in 132KV IESCO grid station here at Mareer Hassan plunged scores of areas into darkness on Saturday.
The fire in the grid station also disrupted 27 feeders shutting power supply to the areas of Mareer Hassan, Mareer Chowk, Katcheri, Jhanda, Moti Mehal, Saddar, Ganjmandi, Gawalmandi, City Saddar Road, Murree Road and Committee Chowk. The Rescue 1122, city district government Rawalpindi and cantonment board fire fighters put out the fire after hectic struggle. The reason of the fire was told be short circuit. The fire completely destroyed the panel room and control room and other machinery. The loss is estimated to be more than Rs 250 million.
According to details, fire broke out in the grid station at 3:30pm and thick black clouds engulfed the area. The law enforcement agencies and traffic police blocked the road for traffic causing a massive gridlock in nearby localities.
Luckily no casualty was reported.
According to Reading Supervisor Malik Khalid, high voltage reversed from Pirwadhai and could not be defused at the Mareer Grid Station owing to which it destroyed the whole system as all the electricity cables burnt with light explosions. He said the total loss was estimated from 240 to 300 million. He said that a situation of uncertainty prevailed in the city. He said that it would take 20 days to restore the electricity if WAPDA made efforts round the clock to repair this gutted grid station.
SDO Amir SHehzad, while talking to The Nation, said that the reason for fire was short-circuit. He said that a huge fire engulfed the control room damaging all the machinery there. While Chief Engineer Muhammad Iqbal said something other that the fire engulfed because of technical fault in the grid station.
Rescue 1122 Officer Deba Shahnaz told media that firefighters responded in 5 minutes and overwhelmed the fire within 10 minutes. Besides others, former MNA Muhammad Hanif Abbasi and Malik Shakeel Ahmed Awan visited the gutted grid station and reviewed the situation. A large number of citizens gathered at the site to see what happened actually but the LAEs did not allow them to go near the grid station.
FAZL DEMANDS ARREST OF PINDI TRAGEDY CULPRITS
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) Chief, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, on Saturday said that he is in touch with all religious scholars belonging to different schools of thought to hold a meeting to discuss Rawalpindi incident and hammer out a strategy to avoid happening of such bloodshed in the name of religion in future. He said this during a visit of damaged Darul Aloom Taleem-ul-Quran (DATQ), Raja Bazaar, where a clash occurred on November 15. On the occasion, DATQ caretaker Maulana Ashraf Ali and many other religious scholars were also present.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman condemned the Rawalpindi carnage and demanded of the government to arrest all the culprits involved in such a heinous crime. He said that seminary was attacked through a well-planed conspiracy by the miscreants. He said that Rawalpindi incident was not an ordinary incident rather it jolted the whole country. The JUI-F chief said that he would convene a grand meeting of Ulema and scholars of all schools of thought to make a comprehensive strategy to avoid such bloodshed in future.
Responding to a query whether Tehrik-e-Jafaria Pakistan (TJP) head Allama Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi contacted him for meeting, Maulana said that though Allama Sajid did not call on him yet he approached some of his party men for the purpose.