Hunza
Three Awami Workers Party members, including senior leader Baba Jan, reunited on Saturday with their families after being in jail for nine years on charges of rioting during a 2011 protest over the Attabad Lake disaster. On January 4, 2010, at least 20 people died in a landslide that blocked the Hunza River, creating the Attabad lake that gradually expanded 23 kilometres upstream, submerging four villages – Ainabad, Shishkat, Gulmit and Gulkin.
The landslide had also blocked the Karakoram Highway, a vital trade link to China, cutting off 26,000 people in the Upper Hunza Valley. The GB government had promised to rehabilitate the affected people. When they failed to meet their promises, a protest was organised in Aliabad on August 11, 2011. Baba Jan, Iftikhar Karbalai and Shakoor Ullah Baig were among those arrested in that protest.
They have been released nine years later as part of a deal recently made between the people of Hunza and the caretaker government of Gilgit Baltistan. In October, thousands of people took part in a seven-day protest in Hunza nearly a month ahead of the Gilgit Baltistan election. The GB caretaker government assured these protesters that it would release 14 political prisoners by November 30 if they called off their protest.
A court had sentenced Baba Jan and the other activists to 40 to 90 years in prison. The AWP activists were given a warm welcome by their family and friends in Hunza after returning home.—INP
