Kabul-Baghlan road blockade lifted

PUL-I-KHUMRI (PAN-Baghlan highway was reopened on Saturday afternoon after several hours of closure by protestors, officials said.

Hundreds residents of Doshi district, rallying against the construction of the Kilagi power dam, blocked the route in the morning. A large number of vehicles were stranded as a result.

Speaking on behalf of protestors, Haji Mohammad Hakim claimed several villages and thousands of acres of land would be submerged if the power dam was constructed.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News that they would continue their demonstrations until the government allotted them lands in other area of the province. 

Previously, the Ministry of Energy and Water had said construction work on the dam — 10 kilometres from the provincial capital — would be launched in the ongoing Afghan calendar year.

But the deputy governor of Baghlan alleged that land-grabbers were behind the protest and they did not the dam project and security installations to go ahead.

Deputy police chief Col. Sadiq Muradi said the agriculture ministry had transferred more than 12 acres of land in the village to the interior ministry last year for the construction of logistic facilities.

So far there had been no reaction from the villagers, who took to the streets at the behest of land mafia now that the contractor wanted to initiate work the dam, he argued.

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