Residents protest govt failure to reopen Chitral-Shandur Road

CHITRAL: The residents staged a protest against the National Highway Authority for its failure to clear the road linking Upper Chitral and Lower Chitral districts at Karbitari.

The protesters led by civil society member Waqar Ahmad advocate and others also chanted slogans against NHA for its failure to remove the debris from the road and open it for traffic.

They said that people, including men, women, children and elderly persons were faced with great hardships due to the blockade of the road at Karbitari for the last three days. They feared that residents of Upper Chitral would face acute food shortage if the road was not cleared from the boulders fallen from the mountain during blasting.

Earlier, the residents of Laspur and Yarkhun had appealed to the federal minister for communications and chairman of the National Highway Authority to take steps for removing snow from the roads and opening it for traffic. They said that Gilgit-Baltistan had already cleared the road while snow was still lying on the road in the Chitral side.

The elders said that blockade of Laspur and Yarkhun roads had become a nuisance for the dwellers while the people of Broghil were faced with acute shortage of food and other essentials necessaries.