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Bajaur blockade to hurt Chitralis too
Dawn
ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: Nestled among the Hindukush
mountains, the district of Chitral has so far remained unaffected by the war
on terrorism. But in the coming winter the Chitralis are likely to be locked
up in their rugged valley due to the blockade of the Kunar-Bajaur route
which they have been using as an alternative to the over 10,000foot-high
Lowari Pass from December to May every year.
When the Lowari road connecting Chitral with other parts of the country
remains closed due to hundreds of feet deep snow for about five months in
winter, the people of the district take the alternative route via
Afghanistan’s Kunar province and enter the Bajaur Agency via the Nawa pass
on the PakistanAfghanistan border to reach other parts of the country.
However, the ongoing military operation has made Bajaur a no-go area this
year.
To avoid being completely cutoff from rest of the world, the residents of
Chitral have demanded that the government should make special arrangements
for resolving their communicationrelated problems before the closure of the
only road linking the valley with the rest of the country via the Lowari
Pass.
In this regard, they stressed the need to increase the number of PIA flights
from Peshawar and Islamabad besides starting a helicopter service like one
launched in 1996 between upper Dir and Drosh in Chitral by the then NWFP
government.
They warned that if the PIA suspended the Islamabad-Chitral flights on the
pretext of unavailability of passengers this year again, they would launch a
protest movement against the government.
It may be noted that the PIA had launched its Chitral service from the
federal capital in June last year on the repeated demands of the residents
to lessen their communication problems besides facilitating foreign tourists
visiting the area. However, the national-flag carrier suspended the
operation in November 2007 citing lack of passengers. The Chitralis,
however, alleged that some elements in the PIA were opposed to the
initiative and had tried from the very beginning to sabotage the service by
denying tickets to the intending passengers and inflicting losses on the
corporation.
They said the PIA was also to be blamed for the lack of passengers on the
Islamabad-Chitral flight because neither it had publicised the launch of the
service nor facilitated the intending passengers in getting tickets.
Besides, to discourage the passengers it kept the fare at Rs3,600 against
Rs2,900 for Gilgit which is situated at a longer distance from Islamabad
than Chitral. The people of Chitral pointed out that the return flights from
their town always remained full to capacity while ticket seekers in the
PIA’s Rawalpindi and Islamabad offices were turned away on one pretext or
the other.
They called upon their public representatives to take up the issue with the
government to ensure uninterrupted flights to the district till the
under-construction Lowari tunnel becomes operational. --(Zar Alam Khan)
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