Selling chopped trees: Protesters block KKH against ban

KOHISTAN:

Responding to the call of a jirga, hundreds of villagers from lower and upper Kohistan on Friday blocked Karakoram Highway (KKH) for an indefinite period against the ban on sale of chopped trees by the provincial government.

A tribal jirga met twice last week and demanded the ban on sale of felled trees be lifted. The ban was imposed under the Green and Clean Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Programme.

To protest against the restriction, forest landowners from Dasu, Pattan, Komela and Zaidkhar Nala blocked KKH in protest, suspending traffic on the vital road link. Protesters vowed to continue the blockade till the ban was withdrawn by the government.

The police arrested several men leading the protest under Section 144 but later released them after protesters threatened to set them free by force.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2014.