KHYBER: The residents in most parts of upper Bara region of Tirah valley have complained that they face problems owing to non-existence of bridges over the Bara River in their areas.

Communication and works department had constructed a concrete bridge in Mastak near Sheen Kamar in 2015 while a steel bridge was temporarily fixed over the river at Saukh locality near Therkho Kas in Mehraban Kallay a few years ago, while leaving the area between these two bridges with no proper crossing points over the Bara River.

Saddam Khan, a schoolteacher in Dray Wandi village of Sipah area, told this scribe that he had to take his ailing wife to a health centre in Paindi area, some 15km from his home on his shoulders while crossing the river on foot at nighttime.

He said that he had to take permission from local security officials prior to any movement on foot during nighttime.

He said that some of his students had to cross the river twice to attend to their classes and return home. He added that they had to skip their classes during rain when the water level rose in the river.

Haji Meeras Khan, a resident of Speen Drand, told this scribe that most of the people living on the other side of the river, where there was no road, had to cross it multiple times during a day for their daily chores.

He said that with no health facility on their side, most patients were taken to hospital on the other side of the river either on foot or on donkey backs with a constant fear of falling in the river.

He said that farmers and smalltime traders and shopkeepers too were faced with problems owing to absence of a bridge along a 50km stretch of the riverbank.

Haji Hashmat, a resident of Dray Wandi, urged authorities to fix the steel bridge of Saukh village somewhere in Sipah area as the government had started constructing a concrete bridge at the same location in Saukh.

He said that shifting of the steel bridge from Saukh to Sipah would benefit nearly 4,000 families of Sipah, Zakhakhel, Kamarkhel and Qambarkhel tribes, residing on the ‘wrong’ side of the Bara River.

He said that if the steel bridge was fixed at an appropriate location, the residents of Kotki, Dray Wandi, Sur Kas, Kandaw Jumaat, Thurkhel, Ali Matkhel, Sandana, Speen Drand and Landikhel would have huge relief in travelling between their area and Bara while onwards to Peshawar and other parts of the province.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2026