PESHAWAR, Sept 26: A protest day was observed on Friday in the NWFP and tribal areas against the construction of Kalabagh dam.

The call for the protest day was extended by the Awami National Party.

A party spokesman said that protest meetings were held throughout the province including Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Nowshera, Mingora, Kohat, Tank, Hangu, Laki Marwat and Jamrud (Khyber Agency) to protest against the construction of reservoir on river Kabul.

ANP workers, carrying placards and banners also staged anti- Kalabagh dam rallies in many urban centres of the province.

In Peshawar, a public meeting was organised at Pishtakhera, which was addressed by the party vice-president Haji Mohammad Adeel, Hadayetullah Chamkani and ANP’s provincial general secretary Farid Toofan.

Party leaders, while condemning the government’s plan to build the reservoir at Kalabagh, said that the project was technically unfeasible.

They said that three provinces had already opposed the project and provincial assemblies had passed unanimous resolutions against the project.

Speakers said that the NWFP would not allow the building of the dam in their province.

ANP leaders were still speaking to participants of the public meeting at the Qisa Khwani Bazaar here.

Veteran ANP leader Ajmal Khattak and party’s provincial information secretary Mian Ifthekhar Hussain led a rally and addressed a public meeting, our Nowshera correspondent adds.

A large number of the party workers attended the rally.

Mr Khattak, while urging the government to suspend the work on the project, said that the construction of the dam on its proposed site would inundate a major part of the NWFP.

Hundreds of ANP workers took to the streets on Friday at Jamrud in the Khyber Agency, condemning the construction of the Kalabagh dam.

The rally was first of its kind in any of the seven tribal agencies against the dam’s construction.

ANP activists from three sub-divisions of the Khyber Agency were initially barred at various check-posts by the political administration in a bid to block the holding of the rally.

But later, activists were allowed to proceed towards Jamrud after the party’s Khyber Agency president Imran Afridi assured that participants of the rally would remain peaceful.

The authorities, however, did not allow ANP’s acting provincial president Aaqil Shah and general secretary Farid Toofan to attend the Jamrud public meeting.