Kohistan jirga vows to protect energy projects

MANSEHRA: A grand jirga attended by elders and Ulema of Kohistan districts and officials of army and civil administration have decided to jointly wage a struggle against miscreants who wanted to sabotage the ongoing mega energy projects underway in upper parts of Hazara division.

“We are here to ensure the safety of Chinese nationals working on mega energy projects in your districts but you have to ensure that nobody from outside sneaks into your area,” Brigadier Habibullah, the commander of 28-Brigade in Kohistan districts, told the jirga in Pattan on Friday.

Thirteen people, nine of them Chinese nationals working on the 4320 megawatts Dasu hydropower project, had been killed in the bus explosion on July 14.

The jirga was also attended by the deputy commissioners and district police officers of Upper Kohistan and Lower Kohistan.

Brigadier Habibullah said that those behind the Dasu bus explosion would soon be rounded up, saying that facilitators were more dangerous than those executing subversive activities.

Speaking on the occasion, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Kareemdad said the presence of the Ulema at that jirga was a clear message for enemies of the country that they stand with their armed forces.

“We would thwart evil designs of our enemies who wanted to harm our Chinese guests on our soil as our centuries-old tradition bound us to prefer death but never allow anybody to harm our guests,” he said.

Elders Malik Misar Khan and Malik Aurangzeb said that local tribes didn’t allow militants to sneak into their districts and formed committees to curb militants’ infiltration when terrorism and insurgency were at its peak in the neighbouring Swat and the rest of the country.

Elsewhere the World Bank commission’s members visited the Lower Kohistan and met with Deputy Commissioner Saiful Islam and District Police Officer Zulfiqar Khan Jadoon and inquired about the safety of the Chinese nationals working on the Dasu hydropower project.