The Pakistani arm of the Taliban warned Friday that it would target the country's main utility company if it did not stop power outages in the southern Sindh province, where a devastating heat wave has killed over 1,000 people.
According to the group – formally known locally as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan – K-electric is “fully responsible” for the human tragedy, as power outages have caused people to go without access to fans, water or light for hours on end.
“Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan considers K-Electric fully responsible because of undue load shedding [power outages] and greed for profits,” said Muhammad Khurasani, the Pakistani Taliban spokesman, in a statement released Friday.
He added that if K-Electric fails to improve its service, “in the interest of the oppressed people, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan will not hesitate to take proper steps against K-Electric.”
The Sindh province is currently experiencing a record heat wave with temperatures reaching as high as 45 degrees Celsius last Sunday. Over 1,000 people have already lost their lives, unable to escape the heat.
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Chronic and prolonged power outages have been reported in the region since last Wednesday – what has lead to public protests in the streets of the provincial capital Karachi.
The privately owned K-Electric said earlier this week that the power outages were because of a spike in demand for electricity due to the current heat wave, as well as illegal connections.
Taha Siddiqui, a spokesperson for K-Electric said the Taliban's threat is a serious concern.
“This is obviously a concern for K-Electric that the TTP [Pakistani Taliban] have issued a release like this,” said Siddiqui. “As far as faults are concerned, they have been reduced, and we have also reduced load shed [power cuts] in the last two days.”
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