Parachinar sit-in: Residents seek relief, reopening of roads

PARACHINAR: The residents here have been staging a protest sit-in outside the Parachinar Press Club as they have been facing a blockade over the last five months.

Thousands of residents in Kurram district, who have been trapped for over five and a half months due to road blockades, continued to suffer as essential supplies have run out in the month of Ramazan. Amidst the ongoing crisis, six more people, including three children, have died due to the lack of medical treatment.

The road closures have confined nearly half a million people in Parachinar and over 100 surrounding villages. With no access to food, medicine, or other necessities, residents—many of them fasting during Ramadan—are struggling for survival. In protest, affected individuals have staged a sit-in outside the local press club.

Speaking at the protest, Muhammad Habib, Musarrat Bangash, and Malik Zartaj asked the government to help reopen the roads leading to Kurram.They called for the reopening of main roads, compensation for the families of those who died due to lack of medical care and financial relief for the owners of trucks that were looted and set on fire in Bagan area.

Meanwhile, another sit-in continued in Lower Kurram’s Bagan area, where demonstrators demanded aid for affected families and the arrest of those responsible for the violence.Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Ashfaq Ahmad said that efforts were underway to provide relief to the people under the terms of a peace agreement.

He added that steps were being taken to dismantle bunkers to restore order in the region.