JUI-F, residents stage anti-Fata merger protest

LANDIKOTAL: Hundreds of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) supporters and residents in Takkia area here

on Tuesday staged a protest against the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The protesters were holding black flags and chanting slogans against the merger.

They marched on the Pak-Afghan Road in Takkia and briefly blocked the road for traffic.

The JUI-F local leaders Qari Saeed, Jahangir Afridi and Muhammad Ayaz addressed the protesters. They said the newly introduced system was not acceptable to the tribal people as the decision about the merger was taken without the consent of the tribal people.

The speakers said that JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had called a grand jirga for June 25 in Peshawar where a strategy would be prepared to launch a countrywide protest against the merger.