GILGIT, Oct 26: Thousands of protesters blocked the Karakoram Highway on Monday, suspending traffic between Gilgit, Hunza and Nagar for three hours to protest against alleged irregularities in Northern Areas Legislative Council elections.

The protesters belonged to Matumdas, Danyore, Oshikhandas, Chamograh and Khaltaro villages of the constituency.

The problem began after 691 ballot papers were found without official stamps.

The protesters say that in the constituency PPPP candidate Aftab Haider was leading against his rival candidate by 457 votes and this "inadvertent mistake" was committed only in five selective areas.

Because of this "mistake" no candidate was elected from the Khaltaro union council.

In the 1999 NALC elections, an almost identical situation was created and at that time votes polled by PPPP candidate Syed Jafar Shah were found without official stamp. "But then the returning officer (who the returning officer this time also) counted these unstamped votes in favour of Mr Shah," the protesters said.

"It is a strange co-incidence that the ballot papers are found without official stamps only in the stations where I was leading with a big margin," the PPPP runner-up Aftab Haider said.

Witnesses said the highway was blocked around 11am at Danyore Chowk and political workers from all political parties staged a sit-in to register their protest but no official of the Northern Areas turned up to hold negotiations with the protestors except the police who stayed there to maintain law and order situation.

Later, the protestors passed a unanimous resolution stating that the voters and their candidates from affected polling areas should not be punished for blunders of the polling staff.

They resolution demanded a thorough investigation into the whole episode without any prejudice. The protesters warned the government of trouble if justice was not ensured to them.