MANSEHRA: Talks between the district administration and the protesters failed on Friday despite the fact that Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has announced to have released Rs500 million for the reconstruction of the Dubair-Ranowalia Road, which was washed away in the 2022 floods in Lower Kohistan.

The residents have been staging a sit-in at the Dubair Khawar hydropower unit for the last five consecutive weeks, suspending power generation.

“The police, the district administration and Wapda are here to hold talks with you and convince you to end your sit-in as the tendering process would be completed within a short period following the release of Rs500 million by Wapda for the reconstruction of the road,” Lower Kohistan district police officer Abdul Salam Khalid told the protesters.

On the occasion, additional assistant commissioner Owal Khan informed the protesters that the authorities were fully aware of the hardships faced by them, particularly the difficulties in shifting patients, especially women and children, to health facilities due to the destroyed road.

Residents have shut hydropower station for weeks over delay in reconstruction of flood-hit road

He explained that the road project was being financed by the World Bank, which required completion of the entire process from survey to tendering in a transparent manner.

“As per World Bank procedures, the process will take at least three and a half months, and during this period, the execution of the project cannot be started,” he said.

Mr Khan urged the protesters and, later, a local committee of elders to end the sit-in, assuring them that authorities would honour their commitment to complete the tendering process within the stipulated timeframe.

However, Malik Salaudden, a leader of the protest, told the gathering that their committee had decided not to end their ongoing sit-in, and wouldn’t allow electricity generation from the power station until the reconstruction of the road started.

EX-COUNCILLOR SHOT DEAD: A former union council member was shot dead over a land dispute in the Chitti Dehri area here on Friday.

According to the FIR lodged with the police by the deceased’s wife, a group of armed men attempted to forcibly occupy their land outside their house, and when her husband confronted them, they opened fire, killing him on the spot. She said the attackers managed to flee from the scene.

The body was shifted to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, where doctors completed the medico-legal formalities before handing it over to the family.

Police were conducting raids to arrest the accused.

Meanwhile, residents of Chitti Dehri, led by former tehsil nazim Khuram Khan Swati, met SP Shahnawaz Khan and demanded the immediate arrest of those involved in the killing.

They also called for a crackdown on alleged land grabbers in the city and its suburbs.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2025