PESHAWAR: Relatives of people from various Khyber Pakhtunkhwa districts languishing in prisons of Oman on Saturday held a protest demonstration against alleged violence on them and demanded of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to play his role in release of the Pakistani citizens.

The demonstrators were holding banners and placards inscribed with the demand for release of the prisoners.

The participants belonging to various parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Mardan, Swabi, Parachinar, Charsadda and Peshawar, said that their relatives had gone to Oman in search of jobs to earn livelihood, but police there arrested them.

They said that of the Pakistani prisoners at least 700 belonged to the KP and Fata, but no one was there to plead their cases for release. Criticising the Pakistani embassy staff in Oman, the protesters said that despite repeated appeals the officials never bothered to visit the inmates.

They said that majority of these people were the sole bread earners of their families.

They demanded of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and rights activist Ansar Burney to play their role in release of the prisoners so that they could return to Pakistan and support their families.