Mangla Dam raising: Over 25 protesters briefly arrested

KALLAR SYEDAN: Police in Kallar Syedan on Saturday arrested and released over 25 people who were protesting against delay in payment of compensation to those affected by the Mangla Dam raising project.

Dozens of people from Banahal village took out the protest, demanding early payment of compensation to those who were displaced by the dam upraising project.

The protesters marched towards the Kallar Syedan-Rawalpindi road where they staged a sit-in and blocked the road for traffic. Addressing the protesters, Raja Jahangir Akhtar, organiser of the rally, said the payments had been delayed for four years now. Akhtar said some 59 families, affected by the project, were living in other people’s houses.

Kallar Syedan Assistant Commissioner Chaudhry Rabnawaz Minhas offered the protesters to hold negotiations, which the protesters refused. Following which, the police launched a crackdown and arrested over 25 protesters including Jahangir.

The protesters, however, were released a few hours later, after the PML-N leaders intervened.

Minhas said Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and not the Punjab government was to make payments to those affected. He said the administration had forwarded all cases to the Wapda.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2016.