GILGIT: The first round of negotiations between the representatives of Diamer-Basha Dam affected people and Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Amir Muqam held in Chilas on Sunday ended in a deadlock.

On his request, the protesters refused to call off their sit-in and instead urged people of other areas to join their sit-in.

The minister is the chairman of a six-member committee constituted on the direction of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to address grievances of the dam-affected people, who have been staging the sit-in at Chilas for the last one weelt Amir Muqam arrived in Chilas, the district headquarters of Diamer, in a helicopter to negotiate with the protesters and convince them to end their sit-in.

Talks were held between the minister and representatives of `Give Rights and Build Dam` protest movement at the Karakoram International University Diamercampus. GB Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan, ministers Engineer Mohammad Anwar, Rehmat Khaliq and Shah Baig were also presented.

Amir Muqam was told that Diamer-Basha Dam affected people had been protestingfor acceptance of their 31 demands including implementation of agreements made between the federal government, Wapda and the dam-affected people in 2010.

The chief minister said that in 2010 when the construction of the dam was started, an agreement was made between the then federal government and the land affected people. He said only 10 per cent of that agreement had been implemented.

He said the land survey for the dam had been conducted by Wapda in 2007 without taking elected members into confidence. Many locals were not included in the list of the affected people.

`I am the chief minister of GB and also an elected member from Diamer and it is my responsibility to present the facts,` he said.

`Diamer-Basha Dam land compensation award was given in 2015,but people have alleged discrimination in the distribution of the financial package among the affected people,` he said.

He said during the previous government, many meetings were held with Wapda officials to resolve the issues. He said resettlement and rehabilitation of the affected people was their genuine right.

`I had requested Amir Muqam to negotiate with the affected people`s representatives on the 31 points of character of demands. He req ueste d the representatives of the protesters to postpone the sit-in and start negotiations on the charter of demands in detail with the federal committee within a month,` said the chief minister.

Amir Muqam addressed the meeting and appreciated GB people for their sacrifices for national interest and the annexation of region with Pakistan. He said it was priority of the federal government to resolve GB people`s issues. He said people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan were protectors of the country without salaries.

He said the federal governmenthad increased the annual budget and development projects funds for GB. He said the government was serious to settle the dam-affected people`s issues.

`Despite public holidays on Saturday and Sunday, the committee members held meetings and today (Sunday) I arrived here despite other engagements,` he said.

He asked the protest movement committee members to call off the sit-in and constitute a committee to start negotiations in detail with the federal committee to reach a consensus to settle the issues.

He said he can`t announce resolution of the character of demands as other members of the committee were not presented.

After the negotiations, the committee members expressed dissatisfaction and announced to continue the protest and vowed to intensify their movement.

GB minister for agriculture Mohammad Anwar later announced that he would resign if the issues of the affected people were not resolved.