PESHAWAR, Jan 26: Activists of the Karakoram Students Organisation (KSO) staged a protest demonstration against construction of the Bhasha dam here on Thursday. Students holding banners and placards assembled in front of the Peshawar Press Club and chanted slogans against the decision to construct the reservoir in the mountainous region.

Speaking on the occasion, the KSO president Taruf Abass Yazdani condemned construction of the Basha dam, saying that more than 50,000 people would be displaced from the site.

He said that the government had started work on the project without taking local people into confidence. He said that before construction of the dam, the government should determine constitutional status of the Northern Areas. He pointed out that President Pervez Musharraf had also stated that Northern Area was a disputed territory.—Bureau Report