MANSEHRA: The residents of red zone area of Balakot and Garlat have constituted a 13-member committee to move court if the development work on the New Balakot City Project is not resumed without delay.

The decision was made at a meeting of the heads of the survivor families on Monday.

Construction work on the Rs13 billion mega housing project for settlement of the survivors of the 2005 earthquake was suspended in 2011 after a protester was killed.

`We suffer a lot while living in makeshift shelters for last nine years and if the government doesn`t resume work on the project, we will approach the court for justice,` said Munir Hussain Lughmani, who was nominated as legal adviser to the committee, while speaking to media men af ter the meeting.

He said that the participants strongly condemned lethargic attitude of the concerned departments.

Mr Lughmani, who is also the president of the district bar association, Mansehra, said that as the landowners and residents of Bakrial, the site of the NBC project, were still occupying their land, how could Erra allot plots to survivor families of red zone.

`We will not receive the allotment letters till the completion of the development work and eviction of landowners,` said MrLughmani.

He said that the committee would meet Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minster and Erra chairman and deputy chairman within couple of days to ask them to order restart of work on the project as soon as possible.

`We will stage protests and will also move court if both the federal and provincial governments didn`t meet our demands,` he threatened.

ARRESTS: The Kohistan police claimed on Monday to have arrested 67 suspected people, including Afghan nationals.

`We have arrested 67 suspected people, including 29 Afghan nationals, who were staying illegally in the district. The Afghans have been sent to prison in Peshawar for deportation to their home country,` said Noor Nabi Shah, the SHO of Kamila police station, while speaking to reporters.

He said that strict security measures had been taken in the district to ensure security of people, especially schoolchildren in the wake of terrorists attack on the Army Public School, Peshawar.

The police official said that hotels were being checked regularly to ensure that the guests had proper identification.

He said that guards equipped with assault rifles had been deployed at schools for security of students and teachers.