Rawalpindi-The affected people of Diamir-Bhasha Dam on Tuesday staged a protest demonstration to call for the relevant authorities to pay them compensation money.

More than 200 people gathered outside Rawalpindi Press Club (RPC) led by Asadullah Qureshi and other office bearers of Diamir-Bhasha Dam Affectees Action Committee. The participants of the protest were carrying placards inscribed with demands. They were chanting slogans against the governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan for failing to solve the dispute between them over the land on the borders of two. Speaking on the occasion, the speakers said that the government had to provide compensation money to the affected people which had been pending for last 15 years. They said that the compensation money worth Rs15 billion was pending against the payment of land acquisition of 15,000 kanal and the government should pay this to the affectees.

Asadullah Qureshi said that the land disputed between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan should be solved. “The timber mafia is cutting trees in the disputed land and move without any hurdle while the government turned a blind eye on this. He said that there were many issues of the affectees of the Diamir-Bhasha Dam including disputed land, payment of land procured by government and road construction affectees payment.