CHITRAL: The residents of Rumbur valley of Chitral are celebrating three-day festivities at the death of a Kalash elder, dancing and singing in praise of the deceased who died on Saturday after protracted illness.

The Kalash people keep the body at the Jastakhan (the dancing place of Kalash) for three days, where dancing and singing continues around the body. The occasion gives the Kalash the opportunity to show their riches and affluence as the guests attending the ceremony are lavishly provided with rich food.

A son of the deceased, Tor Khan Kalash, slaughtered as many as 30 goats and an ox to feed the guests coming from all the three Kalash valleys along with 110 kilogramme of cheese, 80kg of desi ghee and 1,600kg of wheat flour.

Chitral deputy commissioner Khurshid Alam Mehsud and the members of the Senate’s Functional Committee on ‘the problems of less developed areas’ Usman Kakar, Momin Khan Afridi and Mohammad Azam Khan Musakhel also visited the valley to express their sympathy with the bereaved family on Sunday.

They assured the Kalash community of their all-out support to preserve their rich culture and ways of life.

LAID TO REST: The excise and taxation officer, Khalid bin Wali, who had died in a road accident near Mardan on Saturday, was laid to rest in Denin village of Chitral town on Sunday.

The funeral was held at the polo ground which was packed to its capacity.

The deceased officer was posted in Peshawar and was going to Islamabad in his car which rammed into the sidewall of the motorway killing him on the spot.

PLANTATION DRIVE: The University of Chitral carried out a plantation drive at its research site located at Syed Abad on Chitral-Drosh road on Sunday.

The plantation drive was attended by a large number of students, teachers as well as civil society members during which 4,000 saplings of the Spanish species of Olive were planted.

Project Director, University Of Chitral, Prof Badshah Munir Bukhari inaugurated the campaign and urged the young generation to plant more trees so that their future could be saved.

The soil testing of the site had already been done declaring it suitable for growing olive plants.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2018