Kohistan residents suffer as KKH remains blocked

MANSEHRA: The Karakoram Highway (KKH), which was blocked at various points in Kohistan district last week, could not be reopened, leading to shortage of edibles and petroleum products in the district.

“The markets and bazaars are short of food items and petroleum products and people are only depending on their animals that are also likely to finish,” said Hafizur Rehman, an area resident. He said the food scarcity would deepen if the KKH was not reopened within a couple of days.

Kohistan Deputy Commissioner Fazle Khaliq supervised the relief activities in Khial area where almost 70 feet portion of KKH has been swept away by floods.“Installation of suspension or emergency bridge at this place is almost impossible; this is why about 70-feet portion of the highway is being filled with soil and rocks for flow of traffic,” he told locals who had assembled there.

He said that Frontier Works Organisation and officials of the district administration were active to remove boulders from the highway in Chuching area.The Kohistan district administration has also initiated legal formalities to pay compensation to families whose 25 loved ones were buried alive in Thor Nullah area of Kandia valley last week.

The district administration declared 23 people, including 14 women and 5 children, dead after local Ulema and elders abandoned rescue activities from the spot and declared it a graveyard. “Each victim family will receive Rs300,000 as compensation money, for which legal formalities are being finalised,” said an officer of district administration on the condition of anonymity.He added that the administration had also got details about the dead on Sunday.