MANSEHRA: People of Lower Kohistan continued to block the Karakoram Highway (KKH) to all sorts of traffic for the second consecutive day on Thursday as talks between elders of the protesters and district administration failed to end the ongoing agitation.
“You should end the protest as passengers including women and children travelling within the district and between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan have been suffering in the scorching heat on the KKH. Give us 10 days to meet your demands,” Abdul Wali Khan, additional deputy commissioner of Lower Kohistan, told elders of the protesters.
The protesters allowed passengers including women and children to continue their journeys to their respective destinations across the country in the early hours. However, they warned the administration that traffic would again be suspended at 10 am if their demands were not addressed.
After temporarily lifting the blockade of the KKH, protesters also stormed the powerhouse of the Dubair Khawar Hydropower Project and switched off its transmission lines, suspending electricity supply to the national grid station. They warned that power generation would remain suspended until their demands were met and that any attempt to restore electricity by force would be resisted.
Maulana Abdul Kareem, Maulana Israr and Maulana Ahmad Ali told the protesters assembled as the deadline ended that they would not lift the blockade of the KKH until their demands were accepted and the existing 33kv grid station was upgraded to 132kv to supply electricity to the people of Lower Kohistan and Kolai-Palas district from the Dubair Khawar Hydropower Project.
Habibullah, a local elder, opposed the clerics’ stance, saying that the KKH should not be blocked as it was causing hardship for passengers. He urged the protesters to continue talks with the government to secure electricity from the local hydropower project.
It may be mentioned that the government had signed a 13-point agreement with the people of Kohistan in 2015, committing to upgrade the grid station to provide electricity from the Dubair Khawar Dam.
Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2026
