Taliban threatens utility company in heat-stricken Karachi

The Pakistani Taliban warned on Friday that it would target the country’s main electrical company if it did not end power outages

A man pours water on a girl to cool off outside a local hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, June 25, 2015. The devastating heat wave that struck southern Pakistan last weekend is slowly subsiding but the toll was still climbing Thursday, a senior health official said. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

The Pakistani Taliban warned on Friday that it would target the country’s main electrical company if it did not end power outages in the country’s south where an intense heat wave has killed 866 people in the past week.

In a statement released on Friday, Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, also expressed his grief and condolences over the heat-related deaths in the southern port city of Karachi.

The chronic power cuts in the midst of a record heat wave have caused public protests in Karachi. The Karachi Electric company, in a statement, has blamed technical faults and surging demand for the power outages.

Khurasani’s group has been fighting to overthrow the Pakistani government and install its own harsh brand of Islamic law.

Temperatures in southern Pakistan began to drop on Thursday, fuelling hopes that the worst of the heat wave has passed. But authorities said heatstroke patients were still being brought to the Karachi hospitals.

Six more people who were being treated for heat-related ailments died overnight in Karachi, raising the death toll to 866, Nazar Mohammad Bozdar, director general at Provincial Disaster Management Authority told The Associated Press on Friday.