MANSEHRA: A heavy landslide triggered by continuous rain blocked the Karakoram Highway (KKH), suspending all kinds of traffic between the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan in Upper Kohistan on Sunday.
The landslide from the nearby mountain fell on the main artery blocking it to traffic near Kamila area of Dasu, the district headquarters of Upper Kohistan.
“The passengers have been stranded on both sides of the road after the landslide,” SHO Kamila police station Gohar Dad Khan told mediapersons. He said that vehicles coming from parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should not cross the Kamila bazaar and stay out of the city until the road was cleared to traffic.
“Continuous rain has been hampering activities carried out by the police and district administration to clear the road,” said Mr Khan.
Traffic between KP and Gilgit-Baltistan suspended
Meanwhile, the National Highway Authority on Sunday started clearing the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road to traffic after four months of its closure.
“After reopening of this important artery we would start an anti-encroachment drive from Kaghan to Babusar Top,” Mansehra deputy commissioner Dr Qasim Ali Khan told mediapersons here on Sunday.
The MNJ road, which links Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Gilgit-Baltistan, was blocked to traffic after the Kaghan valley received one of the heaviest snowfalls of the ongoing winters season in November last year.
The NHA has moved its shovels and excavators and started clearing snow and glaciers coming in the way of the artery.
According to the NHA, the MNJ road would be cleared to traffic up to Kaghan early next month and then up to the Babusar Top in the first week of May.
Thousands of tourists were stranded in Kaghan valley and most of them spent the night in their vehicles on November 15 last year when the first snowfall of the winter season choked the entire valley.
“The anti-encroachment operation was suspended because of the closure of the road and we would resume it as this artery is cleared to traffic,” Mr Qasim said.
Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2021