Khyber:  Vehicular traffic to and from Torkham was restored after it remained  closed for several hours on Thursday due to protest by the Khugakhel tribesmen in Landi Kotal against the construction of a customs terminal at the border over their additional land without their formal consent, local media reports said on Saturday.

The agitated Khugakhel tribesmen agreed to open the road, which was closed at Torkham bypass in Landi Kotal, after a group of their negotiating team held a series of talks with relevant officials, reports the Pakistani newspaper.

They managed to persuade the National Logistic Cell authorities to suspend work on the terminal till a solution could be reached to their objection.

Sources among the protesters, however, confided to Dawn that a ‘weak’ attendance at the protest camp on the bypass road forced Khugakhel elders to reopen the road.

They said that some of their elders were looking for a ‘face saving’ and wanted to end the protest in anticipation of a loss of interest by the ordinary tribesmen, who were already hit hard by rising prices of necessary daily use items and edibles.