Dassu dam affectees vow to continue sit-in

MANSEHRA: The affectees of the 4300 megawatts Dassu Hydropower Project on Saturday vowed to continue sit-in till the acceptance of their demands.

“Though the federal government has been suffering financial loss of almost Rs750 million a day because of suspension of work on the project, it still hesitant to meet our demands, which were agreed by the then government in 2016,” Fazlur Rehman, a member of 80-member representative committee told a news conference in Barsen on Saturday.

Other members of the committee who had been staging a sit-in for the last four consecutive days in order to the compel government to accept their demands were also present on the occasion.

Fazlur Rehman said that the affected families had forced the labourers to stop work on the project last week. “If prices of our land acquired for the dam is not increased by 10 percent, we will never allow the Wapda to execute the project,” he added. Another member, Raja Arif said that Wapda had acquired their land and houses through the district administration but they were still waiting for payments.

2 sisters die as boulders hit house

Two sisters were killed when heavy boulders rolled down on a house in Kanda village area in jurisdiction of Dubar Police Station in Lower Kohistan.

The sources said the family of one Mohammad Nawab of Kanda village were asleep when heavy boulders hit the house, killing the two sisters.

Five other members of the family escaped unhurt miraculously, said an official of Dobair Police Station in Lower Kohistan. The locals rushed to scene and retrieved the bodies from under the rubble of house.

Two drown in River Kunhar

Two tourists drowned and as many sustained injuries when a pickup vehicle plunged into River Kunhar in Bangian Kass area of Balakot on Saturday.

The vehicle, which was on its way to Rawalpindi from Kaghan valley, went out of driver’s control while negotiating a turn at Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road and fell into the river.

The locals rushed to the scene and shifted the injured, Faheem Sheikh and Saleem Sheikh hailing from Rawalpindi, to Civil Hospital in Balakot wherefrom doctors referred them to Ayub Medical Complex Hospital in Abbottabad.

The local divers fished out bodies of Abdul Qayyum and Haris and shifted them to hospital.

According to doctors, the bodies were sent to their native Chakwal district in Punjab on completion of medico-legal formalities there.

Solar panels to be installed at mosques

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would install solar energy panels at 40 mosques in Balakot and Kaghan valley. “The government has sanctioned money for the supply of electricity through solar panels in remote parts of my constituency, PK-30,” MPA Ahmad Hussain Shah told reporters on Saturday.He said that during the first phase of that programme 40 mosques would be provided with electricity through solar panels.

“We would also provide solar panels to all the mosques in the second phase of the programme which would also be launched shortly,” he added.