MANSEHRA: Hazara commissioner Fayyaz Ali Shah has directed the deputy commissioner of Lower Kohistan district to acquire land for rebuilding the 26km Dubair-Ranowalia Road, which was washed away in the 2022 flash floods.

The directives were issued through a notification, which saidthe land was required to be acquired by the government for public purpose and public expense, namely for the reconstruction of the Dubair-Ranowalia Road.

The commissioner’s office has sent a copy of the notification to the Senior Member Board of Revenue, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

The World Bank has already released Rs500 million for land acquisition to rebuild the 26km Dubair-Ranowalia Road, which was swept away by flash floods around three years ago.

World Bank has already released Rs500m for the purpose

Residents of Dubair, Ranowalia and adjoining villages have been staging a protest sit-in, warning they will not end their protest until work on the road begins.

“It is good to see the commissioner direct the district administration to impose Section IV of the relevant law for land acquisition, as the people of Dubair and Ranowalia have been staging a sit-in for the last seven weeks, demanding reconstruction of this vital artery,” elder Malik Aurangzeb told reporters on Saturday.

He said the district administration, Wapda and police held talks with protesters as they began their sit-in following the diversion of water from the Dubair dam, suspending electricity production. However, the protesters didn’t accept assurances without the execution of work on the road.

The elder said the people were furious as they lost lives and entire infrastructure in the 2022 floods, yet reconstruction work had not been initiated.

“Once work on this road starts, the protesters will call off their sit-in, which has been continuing for the past seven weeks,” he added.-

HELD: The Upper Kohistan police on Saturday arrested the ringleader of an inter-provincial gang involved in circulating counterfeit currency notes in the region.

“We have arrested the ringleader and seized as many as 375 counterfeit currency notes of Rs5,000 denomination, which were planned to be circulated in local markets,” Upper Kohistan district police officer Tahir Iqbal told reporters on Saturday.

The DPO said he had ordered a crackdown on people deceiving people, especially traders, by using fake currency notes.

He said on a tip-off that counterfeit currency had been smuggled into the district and was being transported to Kamila Bazaar, a police team led by SHO Khalilur Rehman was constituted to take action.

“The team intercepted a vehicle on the Karakoram Highway and, during a search, recovered a packet filled with counterfeit currency notes. The accused, Fazl Kareem, was arrested on the spot,” he said.

Mr Iqbal said the detained suspect, who was a resident of Jalkot (Kohistan) but currently settled in Mansehra, was the ringleader of a gang involved in circulating fake currency in Kohistan and other districts of the province.

Meanwhile, the police seized a large quantity of narcotics during a crackdown in the district.

SHO of the Khaki police station Saad Yusufzai said police launched an anti-narcotics drive before recovering large quantities of charas, heroin and ice and arresting several drug dealers during several raids.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2026