MANSEHRA, Oct 30: With the blockade of Karakoram Highway by armed jihadi volunteers at different spots entering its fifth day on Monday, towns in Northern Area and Batgram have been facing severe shortage of foodstuff and other items.
The government-sponsored visit of Maulana Sufi Muhammad, chief of Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariah-i-Muhammad to Bisham area, where volunteers have assumed positions on hilltops, could not bear any fruit, as he failed to convince the volunteers to pull out of the area.
The Nazims of district councils Batgram and Kohistan have started negotiations with the Supreme Council of Ulema. The dialogue between Nazim of Kohistan district, Maulana Ubaidullah and religious leaders near Bisham was successful to some extent, as the ulema have agreed to open the road if the volunteers end the blockade of Thakot-Bisham road.
For ending blockade of Thakot-Bisham road, a 50-member jirga comprising notables of Batagram including former provincial minister, Yousaf Tarand, has reached village Shangali Bandi, where at the time of filing this report the jirga was engaged in negotiations with the leaders of Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam.
It is learnt that if the negotiations in different areas failed then the government would use paramilitary forces for opening the historical Silk Route, the Karakoram Highway. The paramilitary troops which had already reached the area are backed up by armoured personnel carriers (APCs).
According to reports pouring in here from Skardu in Northern Areas, the road blockade has resulted in extreme shortage of petroleum and food products. Similarly, in Allai tehsil, Batagram district, the price of sugar has risen to Rs100 per kg.
Even if the jihadi volunteers agree to end the road blockade it will take about three to four days in removing heavy rocks, stones and boulders from the road. The air traffic between Gilgit and Islamabad is still intact.
This correspondent has learnt from reliable sources that an important leader of Al-Rasheed Trust, an organisation placed on terrorist list by the US, Nizamuddin, had visited Bisham during a recently held 2-day conference of ulema and had asked them to close the Silk Route for all sort of vehicular and human traffic. Soon after his visit the volunteers had closed the road near Bisham.
People, especially patients, have been facing problems due to the blockade. A ten-year-old child had died as he could not be taken to District Hospital Abbotabad due to the road blockade.