MANSEHRA: Residents of Dubair and adjoining areas here on Monday blocked the Karakoram Highway to traffic toprotest a delay in the reconstruction of roads destroyed by the 2022 floods.

“Two people were killed and roads and other infrastructure washed away in the 2022 flash floods, but we still await the reconstruction and compensation,” chairman of Bankhad Ranowalitehsil council Maulana Fazl Wahab told protesters during a sit-in.

Village council chairman Juma Shah said people continued to suffer from those floods caused by the opening of spillways of the Dubair Khawar hydropower project by Wapda.

“We lost people to flooding but Wapda has yet to fulfil its compensation and reconstruction promises,” he said.

Dubair residents also complain about denial of compensation

The protesters reopened the KKH in the evening after the assistant commissioner met them and said the commissioner had called a meeting on Wednesday to address their issues.

JIRGA: A jirga attended by elders of all five major tribes in Torghar district on Monday demanded Akazai and Gujar tribesmen settle their decades-old land dispute for the sake of peace in the region.

“We want you to amicably resolve this land dispute, which has claimed many lives and disturbed peace for many decades,” local MPA Laiq Mohammad Khan told the jirga in Hassan Akazai area.

Noted among participants were elders Zafarullah Khan, Ajmal Shah, and Sawab Din.

The participants demanded both tribes settle the dispute through dialogue.

“Through this largest public forum of our district, we demand amicable resolution of the longstanding issue for easing tensions between the two tribes and ensuring peace in the region,” the lawmaker said.

Mr Khan, who is also the chairman of the district development advisory committee, said that the conspiracies hatched by a handful of tribesmen to disturb peace of that district would be foiled.

“We launched mega development projects here and will continue doing so but the development can happen only when people live peacefully,” he said.

Elder Zafarullah Khan said Torghar was given status of a settled district in 2011 for the people’s development but old disputes were a hurdle to it.

He urged tribes to bury the hatchet and work together for their development and peace.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2024