MUZAFFARABAD: Two labourers from the Hazara division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) were killed after being trapped in a landslide while they were doing manual work on Wednesday, police said.

Station House Officer (SHO) Wajahat Kazmi confirmed to Dawn that Faizullah and Yousuf, residents of Ugi Battagram, were digging along the house of Manzoor Shah in Taami Gojra neighbourhood, which triggered a landslide in the adjacent mountain. Local residents, who were later joined by Rescue 1122 personnel, launched a rescue operation and retrieved their bodies after an effort of almost two hours.

Both bodies were later dispatched to their native area, SHO Kazmi said.

Expressing grief over the loss of lives, civil society activists said that government departments had turned a blind eye towards illegal cutting of mountain slopes in different neighbourhoods, notwithstanding the threat, the unlawful practice posed to the lives of labourers and passers-by.

“Influential people excavate mountain slopes with impunity to carve out residential and commercial plots even along main arteries, let alone less visited areas, but none among the government functionaries stops this unlawful practice fraught with threats not only to human beings but also the environment,” said Saeed Shah, a civil society activist.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2022