MANSEHRA: The National Highway Authority on Monday reopened the Naran-Babusar Top section of Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road to traffic after seven months closure.

The development comes following the removal of snow and cutting of mega glaciers. The Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road was blocked in Dec last year.

It was to be cleared to traffic by June but the snow removal was delayed due to the Covid-19 emergency.

The police department, which has established six check posts on the road between Mansehra and Naran, allows passenger coaches and vehicles to proceed to Gilgit-Baltistan after checking computerised national identity cards of travellers.

DPO Sadiq Baloch told reporters that visitors wrongly thought that the road reopening meant the resumption of tourist activities in the region.

He said the police had returned over 6,400 tourist vehicles bound for Kaghan valley during the last one month.

SUICIDE: A young man on Monday killed himself in Khermera Galli Badral area of Oghi tehsil over failure to marry his cousin.

PROTEST: The residents of Noguzi area and its outskirts on Monday took to the streets against water shortage.

Led by former tehsil councillor Mian Ibrar Shah, the protesters gathered on Noguzi Road and shouted slogans against the tehsil municipal administration.

They demanded the immediate sinking of a tube well for smooth water supply.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2020