Thousands of members of Afghanistan’s most repressed ethnic group, the Hazaras, yesterday marched through Kabul to protest against a planned route of a multi-million US dollar power transmission line, posing a major challenge to the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
Some protesters threw stones and tried to climb over shipping containers stacked up to block the streets into Kabul’s government and diplomatic areas, but no significant violence was reported by mid-morning.
The demonstrators demanded that the planned route for the 500 kilovolt transmission line linking Turkmenistan with Kabul be changed to pass through two provinces with large Hazara populations, an option the government said would cost millions of US dollars and delay the badly needed project by years.
Photo: AFP
As well as the potential for violence, the rally underscores the political tensions facing Ghani’s government as it fights a Taliban-led insurgency and tries to get an economy shattered by decades of war back on its feet.
As marchers reached the roadblocks, some threw stones or banged on the sides of metal containers, but there was no immediate reaction from police. The bulk of the crowd then gathered in a square some distance from the city center.
The mainly Shiite Hazaras have long faced persecution, but they are politically well organized.
Hazara leaders, who include senior government members, say the route chosen for the transmission line discriminates against their people, something Ghani and national power company DABS deny.
Only about 30 percent of Afghanistan is connected to electricity. Modernizing the creaking power system, which is subject to frequent blackouts, has been a top priority.
The transmission line, intended to provide secure power to 10 provinces, is part of a wider Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan electricity project backed by the Asian Development Bank to link the energy-rich Central Asian republics.
Under current plans, due to be implemented by 2018, the line would pass from a converter station in the northern Afghan town of Pul-e-Khumri through the mountainous Salang pass to Kabul.
Demonstrators want an earlier version of the plan that would see a longer route from Pul-e-Khumri through the provinces of Bamyan and Wardak to the west of Kabul.
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