TIMERGARA: The residents of Adenzai area stopped Pesco officials from working on the Shamozai Swat feeder in Chakdara here on Thursday.

The Pesco workers began work when the administration and Lower Dir elders were holding talks at the Chakdara Army Fort.

The enraged residents of Adenzai and Talash areas showed up and stopped the work.

The police and Dir Levies personnel were present on the occasion in large numbers but they didn’t stop the mob.

Earlier, members of the Adenzai and Talash Qaumi jirgas and trader body jointly held a demonstration against the Lower Dir administration and police for registering FIR against local lawmaker and local government representatives.

On Wednesday, the Chakdara police had registered cases against 21 political leaders and elders of Adenzai and Talash Qaumi jirgas, including MPA Bakht Baidar Khan of the QWP, Shahraz Khan of the JI, Fakhruzzaman of the PTI and Lower Dir naib nazim Abdul Rashid, for uprooting power pylons connecting Shamozai feeder with Chakdara grid station.

Hundreds of protesters marched on the roads and reached outside the Chakdara Press Club.

QWP leader and MPA Bakht Baidar, ANP Lower Dir president Hussain Shah Yousafzai, PTI district president Fakhruzzaman, Timergara tehsil nazim Riaz Mohammad, Adenzai tehsil nazim Qamar Zaman and Talash Dushkhel Qaumi Jirga president Ibrahim Khan spoke on the occasion.

They alleged that the Malakand division commissioner and Lower Dir deputy commissioner wanted to incite violence in the area.

They said the people of Adenzai and Talash won’t allow anyone to connect the Shamozai feeder with Chakdara grid station.

Later, Lower Dir deputy commissioner Irfanullah Wazir, district police officer Qasim Ali Khan, Chakdara Battalion commandant Colonel Shahid and assistant commissioners held talks with the leaders of protesters at the Chakdara Army Fort.

Sources said both the parties agreed to suspend work on the feeder until next Monday.

Meanwhile, Bakht Baidar Khan said a 25-member delegation from the region, including lawmakers, would take up the matter with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

“Whatever the chief minister decides, the people of Adenzai and Talash will accept it,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2016