KHYBER: Scores of jobless porters and other daily wage workers demonstrated at Torkham on Saturday to protest the closure of the border crossing for pedestrian movement since May.

Holding banners and placards and chanting slogans in support of their demands, the protesters assembled at the Nadra and immigration offices.

Speaking on the occasion, Ameer Nawaz Shinwari, president of Insaf Mazdoor wing, said the three-month-long closure of the border for pedestrian movement had rendered thousands of daily wagers jobless.

He said majority of them had borrowed money from their relatives and friends with the hope that pedestrian movement would soon be restored, but it didn’t. They said they were unable to return the debt. The protesters demanded of the government to gradually restore pedestrian movement on both sides of the border. They ended the agitation after talks with border security officials.

Meanwhile, senior Wapda officials at the Landi Kotal grid station have asked the residents to install electricity meters in their homes to help reduce duration of loadshedding and control repeated tripping of overloaded feeders.

Speaking to a group of local political leaders and traders, SDO Amir Khan said Wapda could no more supply free electricity to people in the tribal districts, adding they had to install power meters in order to get smooth electricity supply.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2021