After a 36-hour-long blockade, the Karakoram Highway (KKH) was opened for traffic in Kohistan on Thursday. The road was cleared of barricades after the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government accepted the demands of protesting candidates of a police recruitment exam.
Joined by local clerics, traders and political workers, over 400 candidates, who had been shortlisted for 150 posts in the district police, had demanded that the recruitment process be resumed immediately and that District Police Officer (DPO) Abdul Majeed Afridi be transferred back to Kohistan from Peshawar.
Apart from blocking the KKH, the charged protesters did not allow judges or police officials to open their offices on Thursday and warned that they will burn down government buildings. They pelted stones at different government buildings in the area and smashed window panes, while chanting slogans against the Awami National Party (ANP) government and senior officials of the police department. They condemned the alleged “political meddling” by a member of the provincial assembly from Kohistan to appoint 60 blue-eyed people into the district police in violation of rules - the rumours which led to the protest.
Despite the commotion, the local administration and police did no use force against the charged protesters.
Hundreds of stranded people, in vehicles lined up in queues extending to over five kilometres on the busy KKH, had to spend the night in their vehicles; many stayed without food or water.
“I was confined to my car without anything to eat or drink and could not even think of getting out during the night due to fear of violence. This was the most difficult time of my life,” said Abbas a resident of Gilgit.
Passengers requested locals for food and water in the morning, but there wasn’t enough to go around. Over a dozen buffaloes and goats died in trucks due to starvation, while fruits and vegetables being transported got rotten, rendering huge losses to the owners.
Though the provincial government announced in the morning to rescind its earlier decision of putting the recruitments on hold, the protesters did no clear the highway till the government accepted their second demand of reappointing DPO Kohistan. The highway was finally opened for traffic at 7:30pm after an official of the provincial government confirmed that Afridi has been reappointed as DCO Kohistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 31st, 2012.
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