CHAGAI: Employees of Saindak project and area residents continued their protest against the alleged strict restrictions imposed by Chinese firm the MCC Resource Development Limited (MRDL) for the third consecutive day on Saturday.

The workers, after performing their duties, have been observing protest inside the Saindak Copper-cum-Gold Project, while the residents are staging a sit-in outside.

Former provincial minister Sakhi Amanullah Notezai and local politician Arz Mohammad Barech, along with their supporters, reached Saindak and expressed solidarity with the protesters, but they were not allowed by the Frontier Corps to enter the project’s premises and meet the protesting workers.

While talking to local journalists, Mr Notezai and Mr Barech condemned the extraordinary restrictions which were causing miseries for workers and local population. They alleged that workers and residents participating in the sit-ins were being threatened by MRDL’s officers to end their protest.

“Workers and residents cannot meet their loved ones for months due to restrictions imposed for prevention of coronavirus. Ration supply to local residents has also been stopped to force them to call off their protest,” they said.

“The influential tribesmen and officers are not being made to follow the so-called standard operating procedures which has exposed the double standard of the MRDL management,” they alleged.

They warned the MRDL management to immediately accept the demands of workers and residents, otherwise a shutter down strike would be observed in main towns of Chagai district on Monday.

Meanwhile, the higher authorities have assured the workers that their demands would be accepted in 24 hours.

A source privy to the MRDL management told Dawn that Chinese and Pakistani officials on Saturday held a meeting to discuss the prevailing situation. The meeting decided to consider a few demands of the protesters by easing the restrictions within two months, the source added.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2020