Site icon Chitral Today

Issuance of mining lease to outsider in Hunza protested

GILGIT: Hundreds of residents of Nasirabad area of Hunza held a protest demonstration outside Gilgit Press Club against issuance of a mining lease to a private company in their area.

Earlier, about 500 people took out a protest rally from Nasirabad to the press club here, chanting slogans against the government and owners of the private mining company.

They said that economic murder of the poor people was not acceptable and that the local people had the foremost right over their natural resource.

The protesters said marble abundantly existed in Nasirabad, and the local people had obtained mining lease from mineral department in 1989. They said that the locals had regularly been paying the lease fee to the government.

However, they said in recent years a private company had claimed ownership of the mine lease because the owner of the firm was an influential person who had support of the police and the local administration.-Dawn

Exit mobile version