KKH blocked to protest delay in Kohistan road repair

MANSEHRA: The people blocked the Karakoram Highway to traffic for over four hours in protest against the delay in repairing roads and other infrastructure destroyed by the flash floods in Lower Kohistan district.

“The road leading to Ranowalia and other parts of the district are still blocked even after three weeks following the flash floods, but district administration has failed to reopen the roads,” Maulana Said Umar told protesters in Dubair area of the district on Monday. The protesters staged a sit-in at the KKH blocking it to traffic as a result of which the passengers travelling between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan remained stranded on both sides of the road. “There is an acute shortage of food and other essential commodities in various villages affected by the recent devastations caused by the rains and flash floods,” said Maulana Umar. Another protester, Maula

na Amir Akbar said that roads and bridges and houses were washed away by the flash floods, but the district administration was yet to launch the relief and rehabilitation operation in the affected parts of Lower Kohistan. “We cannot take our patients particularly the women to health facilities and the government should declare our district calamity-hit and announce a relief package for us,” said Maulana Akbar. The protesters dispersed peacefully following the deputy commissioner rushed to the sit-in and assured them that the damaged roads and infrastructure would soon be repaired.

PROTEST: The transgender persons and female activists of the Jamaat-i-Islami took to the streets in Mansehra against the motorway gang-rape and demanded of the government to punish the culprits. The transgender persons rally started from the press club and marched through the Kashmir Road. Holding the banners and placards the protesters demanded the government to curb such cases in the country.

“We want the public execution for the culprits involved in the sexual assaults of women and minor children,” Nadra Khan, the president of transgender persons association in Hazara, said. The JI rally was taken out from the Al-Markaz Islami. It marched through Karakoram Highway and turned later into a public meeting.