The federal government on Monday decided to form a high-level committee to address the grievances of locals protesting against the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) in Gilgit Baltistan’s (GB) Diamer for not compensating locals for their land acquired to build the Diamer-Bhasha Dam.

Thousands of people gathered to protest Wapda in the airport area in Chilas over the weekend, accusing Wapda of reneging on its commitments and giving the authority a week to meet their demands. They said they would stop construction work on the dam if their demands were not fulfilled.

Their demands include the settlement of 18,000 acres of land acquired by Wapda without compensation, the disbursement of the chula package to over 2,500 households, the provision of residential and agricultural land for affected people and the appointment of locals on posts in the dam project.

According to a press release from the GB Chief Minister’s House, a high-level meeting was chaired by the Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and GB Amir Muqam in Islamabad, where the decision was made to form a high-level committee to address the protesters’ grievances.

The press release said the committee would visit the area within the next two days to listen to the protesters’ grievances and make decisions to implement their demands.

Speaking at the meeting, GB Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan — who hails from Diamer — said that “the feeling of deprivation agitated those affected” due to the non-implementation of decisions by Wapda.

“The delay of disbursing the households package and the unnecessary delay in implementing confidence-building measures aggravated the situation,” he said.

Muqam said that the legitimate demands of the protesters would be implemented “considering their sacrifices”, according to the statement.

“A high-level committee will be formed as per the demands of the Diamer Basha Dam protesters after taking instructions from the prime minister of Pakistan,” Muqam was quoted as saying.

“The committee will visit GB in the next two days and talk with affected people to take comprehensive decisions to resolve their legitimate demands as per their Charter of Demand.”

Meanwhile, protesters refused to call off the demonstration and the 40-member council of the protest movement decided to continue for the next two days.

They said that the prime minister should form an authorised ministerial committee to negotiate with protesters, warning that if their demands were not met by the end of the new deadline, Plan B would be announced, which would be “very dangerous”.

Speaking to the protesters today, GB Agriculture Minister Engineer Muhammad Anwar and Adviser on Forests Shah Baig assured demonstrators of their full support and to hold Wapda officials responsible for the agitation.

The head of the protest movement, Maulana Hazratullah, said that Wapda should stop construction work on the dam until the demands were met.

He said that the people of Diamer had “sacrificed their native homes, land, graveyard, culture, history [and] everything for [the] construction of the Diamer Bhasha Dam project for national interest”.

He said that the affected people had been deprived of their rights and agreements made with them had been violated.

PPP Local President Amjad Hussain, as well as leaders from other parties and social, political and religious organisations in other districts of GB, announced their solidarity with the protesters. They warned that if the protesters’ demands were not met, the demonstration would be widened across the territory.