GILGIT, June 5 A group of people from Gojal Tehsil of Hunza-Nagar District staged a sit-in at the helipad here on Saturday after the authorities refused to airlift them to their native town as they were stuck up in the city for the last seven days.

Barkatullah Baig, a resident of Sost, told Dawn that he was visiting the helipad for the last seven days but unable to be get a chance to be airlifted to his native town.

Another person from the same locality told this correspondent that earlier they complained about the attitude of the military personnel deputed at helipad but no one was ready to pay heed to their grievances.

Iman Ali, a student at National University of Modern Languages (NUML) of Islamabad said that he was struggling for the last five days to get a seat on the helicopter but could not do so.

He said that he had become out of cash as he had already spent whatever he had in hotel and now facing a great hardship.

An old man alleged that he had been observing that only those persons are given chance and facilitated who have contacts at higher level otherwise for a poor man travelling on helicopter is like crying for moon.

Duty Magistrate, Iqbal Jan, however rejected the allegations and said that helicopter service has been suspended for the last three days due to inclement weather and on Saturday five sorties were made to transport relief goods.

Our Correspondent from Hunza adds The rise in Hunza lake water level halted on Saturday with the increase in the outflow, experts told Dawn.

According to the experts monitoring the water level in the lake, the inflow in the lake remained at 4,650 cusecs against the outflow of 4,800 cusecs.