Kabul on Lockdown as Minority Hazaras Stage Massive Protest

The group is demanding that the line be routed through central Bamiyan province, which has a large Hazara population.

• Authorities locked down Afghanistan’s capital on Monday as thousands from the Minority Shiite Hazaras community marched through the streets of Kabul to protest the proposed route of a power line.
  

• Minority Shiite Hazaras are protesting in Kabul over a multi-million-dollar power transmission line. The minority group is demanding that the line be routed through central Bamiyan province, which has a large Hazara population.
  

• The line was originally set to pass through Bamiyan, but the government decided to reroute it through the mountainous Salang pass north of Kabul, saying the shorter route would expedite the project and save millions of dollars in costs.
  

• The TUTAP power line, will connect the energy-rich Central Asian nations of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan with Afghanistan and Pakistan, helping the electricity-starved region.
  

• The planned protest follows a massive rally last November galvanised by the be-headings of a group of Hazaras, under the President Ashraf Ghani’s regime.
  

(With PTI inputs.)