Hope to find landslide victims alive fades

Kohistan landslide

MANSEHRA: Rescuers on Friday abandoned their search and offered the funeral prayers of the 23 people who were buried under a landslide in the 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 beenblocked for the last one week after heavy rains hit the district, couldn’t be reopened to traffic that has created a shortage of food items in Kohistan.

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