Kabul Locked Down as Authorities Face Major Protest Over Power Line

Thousands of demonstrators from Afghanistan's historically oppressed Hazara minority marched through Kabul on Monday to protest against the planned route of a multi-million dollar power transmission line, which they claim they are being denied access to.

Some protesters threw stones and tried to climb over shipping containers stacked up to block the streets into Kabul's government and diplomatic areas, but no significant violence was reported by mid-morning.

The demonstrators are demanding that the planned route for the 500 kilovolt transmission line linking Turkmenistan with Kabul be changed to pass through two provinces with large Hazara populations, an option the government says would cost millions and delay the badly needed project by years.

As well as the potential for violence, the rally underscores the political tensions facing President Ashraf Ghani's government as it fights the Taliban-led insurgency and tries to get an economy shattered by decades of war back on its feet.

It follows another protest in November against the murder of a group of Hazara people by Islamist militants that became the biggest anti-government demonstration in Kabul for years.

"We want our rights," said Abdul Rauf Safari, 35, a protester from Ghazni, a city in central Afghanistan with a large Hazara population.

"We will no longer accept discrimination and there is no way the government can ignore us this time," he said.

Organizers have urged protesters to "shake the palace of despotism." Authorities have closed access to the presidential palace, fearing a repeat of last year's violence, when demonstrators tried to scale the walls.

As marchers reached the roadblocks, some threw stones or banged on the sides of the metal containers but there was no immediate reaction from police. The bulk of the crowd then gathered in a square some distance from the city center.

Daud Naji, one of the organizers of the rally, said Monday's demonstration was limited as most of the roads were blocked by the government, "but until our demands are met we will continue our activities."

Barat Ali, a member of the Hazara community, said the government was treating his people as second class citizens and intentionally depriving them of the benefits the power line will bring. "What kind of message does that send to people like us?" he said. "We will continue until we get our rights. We are not asking for more than what was originally planned for our areas, they should deliver that."

Protester Laila Muhammadi said: "Whatever the government offers is unacceptable until they decide to change the route of the power line."

The mainly Shia Hazaras have long faced persecution but they are politically well-organized, with thousands of the Persian-speaking minority massacred by the Taliban and al-Qaeda during the 1990s.

Hazara leaders, who include senior government members, say the route chosen for the transmission line discriminates against their people, something Ghani and national power company DABS deny.

Only around 30 percent of Afghanistan is connected to electricity. Modernizing the creaking power system, which is subject to frequent blackouts, has been a top priority.

The transmission line, intended to provide secure power to 10 provinces, is part of the wider TUTAP project backed by the Asian Development Bank to link the energy-rich Central Asia republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Under current plans, due to be implemented by 2018, the line would pass from a converter station in the northern town of Pul-e-Khumri through the mountainous Salang pass to Kabul.

Demonstrators want an earlier version of the plan that would see a longer route from Pul-e-Khumri through the provinces of Bamyan and Wardak to the west of Kabul.

DABS says the current plan ensures ample power to Bamyan and Wardak and that switching the route would add tens of millions of dollars to the cost and delay the project by as much as three years, leaving millions without secure electricity.

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