LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), Jan 29: Around 200 supporters of the Awami National Party were not allowed by the political administration to proceed to Jalalabad on Saturday to attend the 17th death anniversary of the party's founder Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan.

The workers, mostly tribesmen, were stopped at the Takhta Beg checkpoint near Jamrud. Sangeen Wali Khan, a grandson of Ghaffar Khan, was accompanying the workers.

Authorities in Jamrud said the workers were barred from going to Jalalabad as most of them were without travelling documents.

The administration had made arrangements at all the checkpoints on the Peshawar-Torkhum highway and on the border to prevent the workers from crossing over to Afghanistan.

Additional Khasadar force and Frontier Constabulary personnel were posted at the checkpoints to handle any untoward incident.

Officials in Landi Kotal and Torkhum, however, denied receiving any instructions to stop the workers.

The ANP's Khyber Agency chapter, upon instructions of the party high command, decided to abandon its plan to proceed to Torkhum after being stopped near Jamrud and instead held a protest meeting and Quran Khwani at the Takhta Beg checkpoint.

Speaking to party workers, the ANP's provincial vice-president Imran Afridi criticized the government's action.

He said that in keeping with the teachings of non-violence of Bacha Khan, the party had decided to abandon the plan to go to Jalalabad despite provocative measures by the Khyber Agency political administration.

He said there were no political designs behind the observation of the anniversary and the ban on the tribesmen's movement had once again proved to the world that they were not free.

Earlier, Landi Kotal ANP chief Shah Hussain Shinwari, speaking at a press conference, accused the government of following anti-Pukhtun policies and said the Durand Line drawn during the British rule could not divide the Pukhtuns living on both sides of the border.

He insisted that tribesmen did not require visa or other documents to travel to Afghanistan.

He claimed that the administration had promised on Friday to allow 40 vehicles and 600 workers to go to Jalalabad.