Rescue activities abandoned as hope fades to find survivors

Kohistan landslide

MANSEHRA: The rescuers on Friday abandoned their search and offered the funeral prayers of 23 people who were buried under landslide in Thor Nullah village in Kohistan district on Friday.

The funeral prayers of 23 people, including 13 women and five children, were attended by local people and family members. The decision was taken after five days of the tragedy, which claimed 25 lives. The bodies of only two persons could be retrieved earlier this week. The rescuers also saved four people.

The Karakoram Highway (KKH), which has been blocked for the last one week after heavy rains hit the district, couldn’t be reopened to traffic that has created the shortage of food items in Kohistan.

Hundreds of passengers and transporters, who are stranded owing to closure of the KKH between Dassu and Chillas are facing shortage of food.The people in Dassu will also face the shortage of food and if KKH was not reopened within the next couples of days.  The personnel of the Frontier Works Organisation and district administration are making efforts to open KKH to traffic.