NOWSHERA, May 15: Police on Saturday arrested 75 people, who had laid siege to the Cherat cement factory, and freed management officials and workers holed up in the factory. At least 40 people were injured during the clashes between villagers and police personnel. It is also alleged that the police had also arrested children and elderly people. Women of the village had also joined the protests on Saturday.

The villagers blocked the Azakhel-Cherat road for vehicular traffic on Friday and occupied the Cherat cement factory saying that their ownership rights of nearby hills should be accepted. The hills are the main source of raw material for the cement factory.

The people of Sheikhi, Lakrai, Jabba Khushk and Speen Kanay took out a procession and occupied the nearby hills. Some of them laid a siege to the cement factory and locked the main gates. They staged a sit-in outside the factory and refused to end it.

They refused to accept the ownership rights of Pir Manki Sharif, who according to them had no land in the hilly areas.

They demanded that the management of the factory should pay Rs20 per ton on raw material to the villagers of Sheikhi; fix 20 per cent employment quota for them; recruit drivers, peons, guards and helpers from the local population; recruit local youth as apprentice; compensate the people whose houses had been damaged owing to the blasting; and regularize the daily-wage earners.