RAWALPINDI: A mountain boulder that began moving toward a populated area in Nakra Aliot locality of Murree after heavy rain forced the evacuation of the inhabitants.

However, engineers from the army, rescue service crew and the district administration personnel succeeded in breaking the boulder into pieces by blasting after more than 12 hours.

According to Rescue 1122, a call was received at 6:42pm on Monday that a mountain boulder had started moving towards Nakra Aliot putting six to seven houses at risk. The emergency service dispatched two ambulances, one rescue and a recovery vehicle to the scene along with the deployment of a disaster response force.

The rescue staff made announcements to keep the people away from the vulnerable area and proposed controlled blasting to mitigate the risk. Ambulance and rescue vehicles along with 20 rescue staff remained at the site till the completion of the operation.

It said the district administration, highway machinery and army engineers

reached the site early on Tuesday morning and started the operation.

After securing the boulder, drilling was done followed by a controlled blasting, breaking the boulder weighing about 35 tonnes into pieces. The operation was completed at 4:30pm on Tuesday.

The city traffic police have imposed a ban on entry of heavy vehicles and put

diversions to facilitate traffic in the wake of landsliding in different areas of the hill station.

Meanwhile, relief activities were being carried out jointly by the army and the district administration after landslides at Barori and Nakra Aliot areas due to Monday’s heavy rain. Rawalpindi-Murree-Kashmir Road has been opened for light traffic.

Rescue 1122, Civil Defence and other departments are taking steps to clear the affected areas on the special instructions of Deputy Commissioner Agha Zaheer Abbas Shirazi.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2024