HUNZA: The victims of Attabad Lake ended their protest and sit-in on Saturday after they held talks with government and were assured that the demands would be met soon.

“All relief packages will be implemented within seven days,” assured Deputy Commissioner Hunza Zafar Waqar while talking to representatives of the villagers affected by flood in Hunza lake.

“We have held successful talks and all the issues will be resolved soon,” the DC told reporters, adding that all out measures were being taken for rehabilitation of lake victims.

Earlier today, hundreds of villagers shouting anti-government slogans in Attaabad area staged protest demonstration and held sit-in after government’s failure to announce relief package for the affected persons during Friday’s visit of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Officials evacuated thousands of people this week amid fears the lake, formed after a landslide blocked the Hunza River on Jan. 4, could burst and affect about 50,000 people downstream and sever a road serving as an important trade link with China.

Twenty people were killed in the landslide and subsequent flooding of several villages upstream displaced about 6,000 people and left another 25,000 stranded, according to officials and residents.

The protesters including large number of women and children said that their houses and lands being destroyed in the calamity but the government failed to come at their rescue with proper relief.

Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner Hunza Zameer Abbas has said that the government has provided facilities to affected persons at the camps from January 04 after the landslide, which turned the Hunza River at Ata Abad into a lake.

“The prime minister has also ordered for allotment of a plot to each affected family,” the official said.

The affected people were expecting announcement of a big relief package for them, he added.