MANSEHRA, Oct 30: Armed tribesmen and activists of religious parties lifted the six-day-old road blockade of the strategic Karakoram Highway on Tuesday following negotiations with the administration and influential religious scholars, officials said.

“The blockade has been lifted and we are moving in machinery to remove the boulders from the road,” a senior government official in Peshawar said. The blockade was lifted late in the evening, he said.

The government brought in influential religious scholars to talk to the tribesmen and activists of the religious parties and persuade them to lift the blockade.

Earlier, officials had warned of severe food and fuel shortage if the blockade continued. “The situation is not so bad now. We have food supplies and enough fuel to last for another couple of days. But things may become bad if the road is not re-opened in the next three to four days”, Haji Fida Muhammad Nashad, deputy chief executive of the Northern Areas, told Dawn on phone from Gilgit.

His worries come in the wake of continued blockade of the road by activists from the Diahmer district of the Northern Areas and Kohistan district of the NWFP, demanding that the government end its support to the US-led coalition strikes on Afghanistan.

Fida Muhammad Nashad said patients referred for specialized treatment in Islamabad, as well as students and government servants, were all stuck up in the Northern Areas because of the blockade. He said the Northern Areas Council had sent their speaker, executive council members and an influential religious leader to hold talks and use their influence on the people in Diahmer and help remove the blockade.

Our Gilgit Correspondent adds: Negotiations between the local tribal leaders, Ulema and local administration of Chilas were held on Tuesday in the Diahmer district to end the KKH blockade, according to the police.

Sources said that the armed protesters had blocked the KKH near Thuck Bridge at a distance of 1.5km by putting boulders and rocks on the highway..

Meanwhile, the people in the Gilgit district have demanded of the PIA authorities to make arrangements for more than two flights a day to Gilgit and Skardu to facilitate the stranded passengers in Gilgit and Rawalpindi.

They said the KKH was no more a safe route for the people of Gilgit because it was often blocked by the armed men to blackmail people and government to serve their vested interests.

They criticized the authorities for shelving the Gilgit airport extension project for which compensation had already been paid to the land owners.

They also demanded that work on Babuser-Kaghan and Gupis-Peshawar routes be expedited so that these should serve as alternatives to the KKH.