Inclusion of Battagram into Abaseen division opposed

MANSEHRA: A grand jirga of the elders of three Kohistan districts on Tuesday vehemently opposed the inclusion of Battagram into Abassen division.

“The jirga demande the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to include only the three districts of Kohistan in the Abassen division,” Maulana Kareemdad, a local elder, told reporters at Pattan, the headquarters of Lower Kohistan.

The joint jirga of Upper Kohistan, Lower Kohistan and Kolai-Palas, made it clear to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government that no such a division would be accepted by them in which Battagram would be included as its headquarters. “If the government attempted to impose such a formula which is unacceptable to the people of three Kohistan districts. And we will resist it with full might,” Maulana Kareemdad said.

Maulana Kareemdad, who presided over the jirga, said that Abassen (Indus River) passed through the Kohistan districts and they would never want the government to change the division’s name. “It is unfortunate that Chief Minister Mahmood Khan announced the decision without taking the people of Upper Kohistan, Lower Kohistan and Kolai-Palas into confidence,” he said.