GILGIT, April 6: Two children both aged one year, were reported to have died of tetanus in Gultari tehsil near the Line of Control, 280km east of Gilgit. Residents said it was due to lack of medicines and doctors.

A former union council member of Gultari Muhammad Taqi said that more than 110 children were killed in the last winter and now the fresh death cases took the death toll to 112 but no medical facilities were available to deal with the emergencies.

Gultari sector is one of the remotest regions of the Northern Areas which remains cut off from the rest of country from October to March every year because of heavy snowfall that disconnects all the land routes leading to Gultari.

The local residents said the supply of medicine also gets suspended during the winter with other essential items and they are supposed to store eatables in summer.

They said that the army helicopters are only ray of hope for them that keep dropping medicine and food items from time to time through sorties.

They demanded of the government to ensure appointment of doctors and provision of medicinal stocks round the year.