KOHAT: Thousands of people, including students, belonging to different tribes on Saturday staged protest demonstration against closure of coal zone in Darra Adam Khel area of Kohat.

The demonstrators said that 18 companies were working in coal zone of Darra Adam Khel. All the companies are bound by a 10-point contract with the Kohat administration and security agencies since 2017, however, one of the companies has closed coal zone since Mar 23 this year in violation of the contract. This has put jobs of more than 20,000 labourers of Shangla and Swat at stake.

The protesters said that all the companies were bearing the loss worth Rs200 million a day and the government’s royalty was also hurt. They said the Kohat administration should not become silent spectator in such situation.

They asked the federal and provincial governments to take notice of closure of coal zone.