MANSEHRA: The Torghar district administration has directed cable car operators, who provide a major means of transportation in the district due to a lack of road infrastructure, to strictly follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) prescribed by the government to ensure passenger safety.

“You have to adhere to the SOPs laid down by the government for passenger safety, as most of the cable cars operating in Hassanzai tehsil and the rest of the district cross the mighty Indus River,” Kunder Hassanzai assistant commissioner Syed Jamil Hussain Shah told cable car operators on Monday. A team of tehsil municipal administration officials and relevant departments, led by Mr Shah, visited the Namia and Kunhar Sharif areas and inspected the cable cars and other equipment.

“You have to adopt extra precautionary measures to ensure passenger safety while crossing the Indus River, and must not operate cable cars at night,” he said.

The assistant commissioner warned that anyone found operating the facilities without legal authorisation could face action under the relevant laws.

FERTILISER GODOWN SEALED: A committee constituted by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home and Tribal Affairs Department has sealed a urea fertiliser godown and initiated legal action against its owner in Balakot tehsil.

“We checked all 14 godowns in our tehsil to verify the stocks of urea fertiliser and sealed one of them over reduced quantity,” Balakot assistant commissioner Hasrat Khan, who heads the committee, told reporters on Monday.

He said the team paid surprise visits to godowns across Balakot tehsil to verify whether the urea fertiliser stocks matched the official records after the provincial government banned its sale and transportation in July this year as it is used in the manufacture of improvised explosive devices.

The assistant commissioner said the ban was still in force.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2026