MANSEHRA: Hundreds of passengers who remained stranded since Sunday in Upper Kohistan at three places left for their respective destinations after the district administration cleared the Karakoram Highway for traffic between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan on Wednesday.

“We have cleared the KKH at three places to traffic, and now only goods transport is stuck in our district,” Upper Kohistan district police officer Abdul Saboor Khan told mediapersons.

He said that KKH was blocked at Dasu, Shitial and Zaseen following heavy landslides the other day, leaving the passengers travelling between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan stranded, but rubbles from all those three points had been removed and the route cleared to traffic.

“We have also reopened KKH at Shitial to light traffic, but heavy lorries are still stuck up there,” said Mr Khan. He, however, said that mobility of vehicles was restricted beyond Dasu, the district headquarters of Upper Kohistan, after 9pm because of fears of landslides on KKH.

In Shangla, heavy snowfall attracted nature lovers from different parts of the country. As the weather turned sunny, tourists reached the high hills of Shangla, which had received 4 to 6 feet of snow during last six days.

Syed Muzammil, a tourist from Lahore, said that he was seeing snowcapped mountains for the first time. He complained about the bad condition of road and its closure due to snowfall.

Mr Mustafa, a tourist from Peshawar, said that he had visited Yakhtangay in summer and was now here in winter and enjoyed the beautiful valley in both the seasons.

Meanwhile, MPA Faisal Zeb Khan urged the district administration to clear the roads in Shangla as they remained blocked after heavy snowfall.

He said that the roads of Yakhtangay, Martung, Ajmeer and several others remained closed to traffic on Wednesday.

In Bisham city, the power and water supply and internet service remain suspended for the last six days, creating problems for the local people.

When contacted, public health department officials said that water supply lines of Bisham city were broken at many points due to snow and it could take three days to repair them.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2019