KHYBER: The owners and workers of stone crushing units ended their protest here on Monday when government lifted 11-year-old ban on its operations.

Assistant commissioner Bara Nek Mohammad along with MNA Iqbal Afridi and MPA Mohammad Shafeeq accompanied hundreds of crushing unit owners and labourers to Besai Ghar, the site of over 80 closed units which had mostly turned obsolete over the last decade.

Haji Ibrahim, president of Bara Stone Crushing units union told Dawn that they agreed to end their protest and lift the siege of the main road after an assurance by the district administration about the restoration of their rusted and dilapidated machines.

He said though the local officials and parliamentarians performed a symbolic reopening of the units and added these would be fully operational once they repaired all the damaged machines and electricity supply was also restored.

With the ending of the protest, the Shalobar tribe also ended their boycott of polio vaccination drive which they had announced as a mark of solidarity with the protesting stone crushing units owners and workers.

Meanwhile, Khyber police said on Monday that security on all the entry points to the district had been beefed up while 1,050 police personnel had been assigned special duties to provide security to 938 health teams during the current polio vaccination campaign.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2022