KARAK: The residents of Banda Daud Shah tehsil on Friday observed complete strike and blocked the Banda-Gurguri road for traffic in protest against low gas pressure in the area and indifferent attitude of the oil and gas exploration companies to solve their problems.

The protesters, led by Amn Committee president Azeem Khan, Maqbool Rehman and Abdul Azeem, marched in Teri city and blocked the BandaGurguri road. The traders also observed complete shutdown to express solidarity with the protesting residents.

On this occasion, the speakers claimed that the oil and gas companies, including MOL and SNGPL, had destroyed the available infrastructure of the tehsil.

They complained that the companies had destroyed their land by transporting heavy machinery through it, but were offering no facilities and compensation to the affected people.

The speakers claimed that the companies had huge welfare funds for development of the area, but they had spent no funds on the welfare of this backward tehsil.

The elders said that the companies had been extracting billions of rupees minerals from their area, but were doing nothing for improving the standard of life of the 10cal people.

They said that only gas was available to the local people, but now due to extremely low gas pressure they were using firewood for cooking and other domestic use.

They said that they had held several meetings with the management of the companies and district and tehsil administrations to bring into their notice the issue of low gas pressure, but to no avail.