Residents demand link road along Hazara Motorway

The residents of Dodial and adjoining union councils on Tuesday staged a sit-in to demand a link road to connect their towns and villages with Hazara Motorway.

The protesters gathered at the under-construction Mansehra-Shinkiari section of Hazara Motorway compelling machinery and workers to suspend the work on the motorway for the entire day.

The protesters also raised slogans in support of their demands.

“Because of Hazara Motorway our villages and towns and agriculture land is divided and we would have to travel a long way if a link road is not constructed,” Asim Shahzad, the president of Jamaat-i-Islami youth wing, told reporters.

He said that high-ups of the National Highway Authority had agreed and announced to construct a link road to connect Hazara Motorway with Dodial and adjoining union councils but to no avail.

Shahzad said that they would not allow companies working on carpeting and other construction work on that international highway to go ahead until their demands were met.

“We have given our agriculture land for the motorway but our village and towns are being divided through that corridor which we would never allow,” he added.