LANDI KOTAL: Scores of residents of Torkham held a protest demonstration on Friday against the ban on carriage of flour and other food items to their houses.

The protesting residents accused the staff of food and livestock departments posted at Michni checkpost of forcibly restraining them from taking flour to their houses for domestic consumption.

Qari Nazeem Gul, a spokesman for the residents of Bacha Maina, a residential locality close to Torkham border, said over 300 families resided in the area, while there were a number of nan bais (bakers) in Torkham Bazaar, but the livestock and food staff were not allowing them to take flour to their houses on the pretext that the commodity was smuggled to Afghanistan.

He alleged that the ban on flour for domestic use was imposed without taking people into confidence and that it had caused shortage of the commodity in a number of houses.

Nazeem Gul said the ban had also pushed up the prices of flour in the local market. He demanded of the district administration and respective departments to allow them to carry flour to their houses in accordance with their requirements.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2019