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triggers anxiety downstream, with Indian officials watching closely for signs that Islamabad might gain too much control.
In Islamabad’ s rhetoric, Diamer- Bhasha is about national energy security, about cutting reliance on imported fuel, about jobs. In the mountains, though, it is about disappearance. Villages like Harban, Thor, and others will be relocated, their fields submerged beneath the reservoir’ s dark waters.
“ Have you seen our orchards?” one local elder told me near the protest line.“ Apricots, mulberries, fields of maize. They will all drown. And what will we have? Promises. Empty promises.”
As night descended on the blockade, the mood shifted. Fires burned brighter, kettles refilled, and someone produced a dhol drum. Music bounced off the cliffs, and for a moment the road felt festive, not desperate. Truckers sang ballads of lost loves and faraway villages. Younger men joked about their stranded cargo, teasing each other about the smell of spoiled onions.
“ The KKH teaches patience,” Jamal said, tapping ash from his cigarette.“ She is an old wife, sometimes she
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