Speaking at a public gathering here, the representatives of the affectees warned that if the demands were not met they would block the Chitral-Mastuj road at Charun from Feb 14.
The protest was arranged by Tehreek Huqooq-e-Awam upper Chitral and attended by a large number of people, including village council nazims and members of the tehsil and district councils.
The speakers said the main bridge linking Kosht valley with other areas of Chitral was washed away during the July-Aug floods and to link the areas a temporary steel bridge was laid over the river which would not be able to withstand the increase in the water flow after March. They demanded that work on the reconstruction of the Kosht bridge should be started at the earliest.
The speakers also said the earthquake-affected people still waited for the payment of compensation. They said the vevirification of the damages caused by the quake had been completed on the request of the affected people but after that the government did not pay them the compensation. They said the process to pay the compensation should be started immediately.
The protesters said the KP government should abandon its plan to launch a housing project at Qaqlasht as it was a public pasture and a place where people affected by natural calamities took shelters. They said some people, including local PTI leaders, had met the chief minister KP recently and demanded that work on the housing project should be started. The protesters said these politicians had no stake in Qaqlasht and they had met the chief minister and presented the housing scheme proposal without taking the local people into confidence.
The protesters warned that they would never allow any government housing project at Qaqlasht.
Those who spoke on the occasion included Jamaat-e-Islami upper Chitral leader Shuja Uddin Raza, member district councilfrom Kosht Ghulam Mustafa Advocate, who also presided over the gathering, Tehreek president Sarfaraz Ali Khan, vice-president Rehmat Salam, information secretary Muhammad Pervez Lal, tehsil council member Inam Ullah, village council nazim Rizwan Ali Shah and Younus Lal.
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