MANSEHRA, Oct 31: The armed workers of religious parties and local tribesmen have partially opened the Karakuram Highway for traffic to make it possible for people to attend the three-day annual congregation of Tablighee Jamaat being held from Nov 1 at Raiwind near Lahore on Thursday.

“One of the reasons of lifting the road blockade is to provide passage to the faithful proceeding to Raiwind,” said Qari Mohammad Afzal, a JUI leader, at a press conference here on Wednesday.

He said that if the government did not meet the demands of the Pakistan Afghan Defence Council and the Majlis-i-Ulema, all roads in the Hazara division, including the Silk Route, would be blocked in the first week of November.

The armed protesters, who have ended blockade of the road on the assurances of religious leaders, are still occupying the hilltops at certain points along the Karakuram Highway.

The local authorities are busy removing boulders, which were scattered on the on the road by blasting of hills, to resume traffic which remained suspended for six days.

The Majlis-i-Ulema, an umbrella organization of the religious scholars of Hazara and Malakand divisions, has demanded of the government to review its Afghan policy and withdraw support to America against Taliban.

The talks between the government team, headed by Corps Commander of Peshawar, Lt-Gen Ali Jan Orakzai, and local leaders of the Pakistan Afghan Defence Council and Majlis-i-Ulema and other religious scholars, headed by Mufti Nizamuddin Shamazai, were held at Besham, the headquarters of Shangla district, on Tuesday evening.

He said that if the government did not change its Afghan policy till Nov 6, the religious parties would be left with no other option but to start a civil disobedience movement.

The personal staff officer of District Nazim Battagram, Abdullah, told this scribe by telephone from Battagram that the decision to lift the blockade was taken at a meeting held at Besham. The government team has assured the Ulema that their demands would be conveyed to the government.

He said that a delegation of Ulema had left for Chilas and Gilgit to persuade the protesters to lift the siege of the abandoned airstrip of Chilas airport.

Our Gilgit correspondent Safdar Khan adds: The Gilgit-based transporters on Wednesday said that they could not ply their buses on Rawalpindi-Gilgit route as a section of the Karakoram Highway at Thuck, Chilas, was still not open to traffic.

They said that negotiations between the police officials and religious leaders in Chilas were still underway.

The transporters said that the KKH was opened in Kohistan district in the NWFP, but the police in Diamer had warned that they should not operate between Gilgit and Rawalpindi until further notice. And added that it would take another two days to clear hurdles that are spread over a stretch of 1.5 km in Chilas area.