By IANS,
Islamabad : Two people were killed and another 30 injured in a pitched battle between the police and locals who were upset over acute electricity shortage in a Pakistani town.
Local rights group, Tehrik Huqooq Mianwali, had given a call for a march Monday and a sit-in at Chashma, in Punjab province, where a number of establishments of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission are located.
The group demanded that Mianwali district should be exempted from power outage and instead be paid royalty as about 1,000MW of electricity are produced from three plants at Chashma, while it needs just 100MW, Dawn reported Tuesday.
When the people began to move towards Chashma, the police stopped them. A police baton charge led to stone pelting by the protesters.
The mob broke through the first police cordon, but a heavy contingent of police thereafter thwarted further movement.
When the protesters pressed ahead to continue their march towards Chashma, a clash took place with the police which opened fire.
Khadim Hussain and Mehr Khan died of bullet injuries.