MANSEHRA: Hundreds of tourists stranded in the Kaghan valley following the blockade of the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road due to snowfall left for their respective destinations after the National Highway Authority cleared it to traffic on Monday.

“The MNJ Road, which links Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Gilgit-Baltistan and was blocked at Babusar Top and adjoining localities following the snowfall, is now cleared to the traffic,” National Highway Authority deputy director Shamsur Rehman told reporters on Monday.

The first snowfall of the winter season, which turned the weather cold, began in Kaghan valley and other parts of Mansehra district on Sunday night and blocked the MNJ Road.

The tourists travelling between Kaghan valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Chilas in GB had got stuck following the artery’s blockade amid heavy snowfall.

Mr Rehman said the road was cleared by heavy machinery.

Hussain Deen, the chairman of the hoteliers association in Kaghan, said the valley mostly received the winter season’s first snowfall early or mid-November, but this time around, it had happened prematurely.

He said tourists present in the valley enjoyed the snowfall.

TWO KILLED: Two people were killed and another suffered critical injuries when a car skidded off the Karakorum Highway and fell into a deep ravine in Lower Kohistan district on Monday.

The incident occurred in Galooz Banda area as the driver lost the control of the Battagram-bound car.

The Rescue 1122 personnel shifted the deceased and injured to the nearby health facility, where the doctors pronounced Mohammad Bahadur and Shakarullah dead.

In another incident, gunmen killed Mohammad Tariq in his house in Banda Sandysar area.

ILLEGAL MINING: Chairman of the district development advisory committee and MPA Nawabzada Fareed has said he will ensure that illegal mining doesn’t take place in Oghi area.

He was talking to the residents Shungli Bandi and its adjoining areas, who called on him on Monday.

A visitor said illegal mining was happening in the area, water resources were vulnerable to pollution.

Mr Fareed said he had spoken to deputy commissioner Dr Qasim Ali Khan to ensure that illegal mining doesn’t take place in Shungli Bandi and adjoining areas.

He, however, said the granite mining was an industry, which provided employment opportunities to locals, so any hurdles to the legal mining in the district won’t be allowed,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2021