April 3, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 30, 1424

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GILGIT, April 2: The Gilgit-Baltistan Muttahida Talaba Mahaz (GBMTM), a coalition of nine student bodies, took out a protest procession on Monday at the Karakoram University against the US-led war on Iraq.

The procession started from the university and terminated at NLI chowk.

The Gilgit-Baltistan Muttahida Talaba Mahaz chairman Saeedul Hasnain and other student leaders including Shahid Raza, Asif Qureshi, Ghulam Ali Shah and Abid Hssain spoke at the rally and condemned the war against Iraqi people.

They said the war was being fought to control rich oil deposits of Iraq and it had nothing to do with freedom of Iraqi people. The protestors burnt effigies of President Bush and Prime Minister Blair. The Imamia Students Organization, Islami Jamiat-i-Talba, Jamiat Talba-i-Islam, Muslim Student Federation (Q) and PSF participated in the rally.

COMPENSATION: About 480 affected families of Gilgit-Zulfiqarabad link road families have not yet received the compensation of their lands, houses, shops and other properties, demolished during the widening of the road from the Gilgit Bazaar to the residential area of Zulfiqarabad, two years ago.

In an appeal to President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali, the families said the road was widened to 27 feet, but the contractors have illegally started to further bulldoze public properties to widen the road to 40 feet.

It has create problems for the people. Residents feared this could create law and order situation in the city.

They recalled that the government had announced compensation for the affected families but when the measurements were made, only five feet were accepted for compensation. Two years have passed the people are yet to be paid.

POWER PROJECT: Steps are being taken to harness the water resources and generate electricity to overcome power shortage, an official of Northern Areas Works Department told Dawn here on Wednesday. He disclosed that Rs31.7 million were earmarked to construct a 250kv power project at Bargo village, which would electrify Bargo, Sharote, and Shikiote Thingi villages.