BANNU, Pakistan -- Thousands of people protesting the killing of four teenage boys in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province have ended their demonstration following overnight talks with government officials.
Rahmanullah, one of the leaders of the sit-in protest in Bannu district, told RFE/RL in the morning of March 29 that the demonstration was called off and the participants were on their way back to the town of Jani Khel to bury the dead bodies.
Kamran Bangash, adviser to the provincial chief minister, said the government agreed to ensure security in the area by taking action against Taliban militants and other armed groups in the area, one of the protesters’ key demands.
WATCH: Pakistani Government Meets Demands Of Protesters Over Teenagers' Killing
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Pakistani Government Meets Demands Of Protesters Over Teenagers' Killing
The government also vowed to pay a compensation of 2.5 million rupees ($16,100) to the families of each of the slain boys.
The previous day, about 3,000 demonstrators from the rural area around Jani Khel launched a protest caravan comprising cars, trucks, motorcycles, and the bodies of the four teenagers in an attempt to reach the capital, Islamabad, to press their demands over the killings.
The group broke through a police blockage south of the town of Bannu, prompting police to fire tear gas at the protesters.
A member of national parliament and a leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement were taken into custody and later released.
Many participants in the protest caravan were part of a sit-in protest that began nearly a week earlier in Jani Khel, which is on the border of the former tribal region of North Waziristan, after the bullet-riddled corpses of the four teenagers were discovered in a field.
The boys – aged between 13 and 17 years old -- had disappeared three weeks earlier.
Relatives said their bodies bore signs of torture when they were dug out of the ground.