Battagram saga kept nation on tenterhooks,
Three illegal chairlifts sealed in Swat,
BATTAGRAM/Islamabad_ Mudassaer Chuhdary/Webdesk)_ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police on Wednesday arrested the owner and operator of a Battagram chairlift which became stranded high over a remote ravine on Tuesday morning.
Eight people, including schoolchildren who got trapped in a disabled cable car dangling high above a valley in Pakistan’s Battagram, returned safely to the ground Tuesday after military commandos staged a daring and delicate rescue using helicopters and a makeshift chairlift.
Facts,
From the chief minister to the prime minister, from air force to army, all the bigwigs got engaged in rescuing the students and a teacher who were stranded in a cable car in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Battagram.
But it wasn’t just the country’s leadership and authorities, as almost every citizen remained glued to TV screens for hours while praying for the safety of all the stranded passengers.
At least two Pak Army helicopters reached the site to rescue the stranded students and teachers. They first conducted a recce of the location before starting the rescue operation.
It was a highly dangerous operation, according to the experts. The first child was rescued after the tireless effort of 12 hours.
The life hung in the balance for 14-long hours. Pakistan Army successfully carried out the rescue operation for the eight people, including seven children and a teacher, who were trapped in the cable car.
It was 900 feet (274 metres) above a ravine in Battagram district.
The General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Pakistan Army’s Special Services Group (SSG) led the rescue operation.
Two of the children were airlifted by a helicopter in a sling operation and others were rescued in the ground operation as the helicopter operation was called off in the night.
The students and a teacher were stranded since 7am when they were using the chairlift to get to the school in a mountainous area about 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Islamabad.
Officials said the rescue mission was complicated by gusty winds in the area and the helicopters’ rotor blades risked destabilising the cable car.
Gulfraz, one of those trapped in the chairlift, told media that one of the children had been unconscious for quite some time as he had cardiac issues.
He said the chairlift was precariously hung as strong wind was blowing and an immediate rescue operation was the need of the hour.
The people stranded in the chairlift were Ibrar, Irfan, Gulfraz, Usama, Rizwanullah, Attaullah, Niaz Muhammad and Sher Nawaz.
Some locals from Shangla’s Besham were also hired who were expert in such operations.
The cable car is privately run by locals for transportation across rivers as no roads or bridges are constructed in the area.
In the northern regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, cable cars are vital transportation systems, connecting villages and towns in areas where roads are difficult to build.
While,
The administration in Swat on Wednesday sealed three chairlifts operating illegally in different areas of the valley,
The action came a day after Pakistan Army’s SSG commandos carried out a daring rescue operation to save seven students and a local resident in Battagram district, after their cable car stuck in midair after its two of the three cables snapped.
The Swat administration sealed the three illegal chairlifts in Matta area which were launched by local residents without getting any permission or no- objection certificate (NOC) from the authorities.
The Swat assistant commissioner sealed the chairlifts, also known as dolly, to avoid any untoward incident.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has ordered the inspection of all chairlifts installed in the province and conduct their safety audit following the cable car incident in Battagram.
The directives from the provincial government came on Tuesday just hours after the Pakistan Army’s special unit and zipline experts rescued eight people, including six school boys, trapped for hours in a stricken cable car high above a remote valley in Allai Tehsil.
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