KKH blocked to protest killing

MANSEHRA: The protestors in Kohistan district on Saturday blocked the Karakoram Highway (KKH) after a sepoy of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) allegedly shot dead a young man in Kamila Bazaar in Dassu area.

“We are trying to persuade the protesters to reopen the road. We have assured them that law would take it due course and justice would be done,” Deputy Inspector General of Police, Hazara Range, Saeed Wazir told reporters.

“We would provide justice to the bereaved family and an FIR would also be registered,” he added.

He said the man was killed when the FC personnel fired warning shots to disperse the people. “We reopened the KKH after the registration of the FIR, but demands of the protesters are changing,” he added.

The incident happened around 9:30 am when an ambulance of FC carrying a patient got stuck in Kamila Bazaar.

According to the eyewitnesses, a local man and the sepoy exchanged harsh words that led to the incident in which one Umar Farooq was killed.

Angry protesters blocked the KKH by placing the body of the slain person on the road.

The passengers travelling between Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa faced problems due to the closure of the road as vehicles remained stranded all day.

The angry protesters demanded the handing over of the FC sepoy to them and the registration of first information report (FIR) against him for murder. They constituted a committee to discuss the modalities with the police and district administration regarding registration of the FIR against the accused.

The FC is stationed in Kohistan since 2014 to assist the police in maintaining law and order after tribes from Chilas in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa took up arms against each other over a boundary dispute that led to five deaths.