Ashrafuddin Pirzada
TORKHAM BORDER: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caretaker chief minister, Muhammad Azam Khan and governor, Haji Ghulam Ali, paid a visit to the Torkham border on Wednesday and inspected the place where the massive landslide took place two days ago.
Deputy commissioner Khyber Abdul Nasir Khan, district police officer Salim Abbas Kalachi, Brigadier Taimur, former MPA Shafiq Sher, Jamrud tehsil chairman Sayed Nawab Afridi and other political leaders and officials have also accompanied the governor.
Muhammad Azam Khan and Haji Ghulam Ali inspected the rescue operation and showed great concern over the slow pace of the rescue workers. They issued strict directives to the local authorities to provide heavy machinery so that the rescue operation could be completed in a minimum time. As the governor and caretaker chief minister arrived in Torkham from the Landikotal helipad dozens of locals, social workers, transporters, custom clearing agents and relatives of trapped persons gathered around the chief minister Azam Khan and Governor Haji Ghulam Ali. They chanted slogans Shame shame. They demanded of the governor and chief minister to expedite the rescue operation and use heavy machinery to pull out the trapped persons as soon as possible.
Protesters were of the opinion that the government was not serious to rescue the trapped persons. They said a number of officials visited the incident site in the past two days and went back after conducting photo sessions.
Protesters were of the opinion that the government was not serious to rescue the trapped persons. They said a number of officials visited the incident site in the past two days and went back after conducting photo sessions.
An Afghan citizen, Gul Agha told this scribe that his cousins and their helpers have buried under the huge heap of debris. He said their trucks were also buried in the landslide but no one sincere to pull out the bodies and their trucks.
” We are Afghan Muslims and brothers of Pakistanis but at the moment we are at the mercy of Allah, I and some locals were working for hours long with bear hands to find the trap persons but failed to reach yards down under the heap of stones,” said Gul Agha while broke into tears. He said authorities had brought a sniffer dog this morning to find the human bodies but went back without any success.
Later on, returning from Torkham, Chief Muhammad Azam Khan and Governor Haji Ghulam Ali met with a delegation of locals and social workers. The governor assured them that their grievances would be addressed.
Social worker and local elder Ilyas Shinwari led the delegation that met with Chief Minister and governor at the Michni check post in Lamdikotal.
He said they requested the CM and governor to arrange every possible machinery to pull out the dead bodies quickly. He said they told the VVIPs that government must compensate those who lost their lives and suffered economic losses. He said they also placed the demand of inquiry against the National Logistic Cell as due to their negligence and corruption the incident happened. He accused NLC that it was the first time a landslide happened in Torkham but twice before.
Ilyas Shinwari said the governor and chief minister accepted their demands and on the spot issued directives to deputy commissioner Khyber to fulfil them.
Meanwhile, two more injured persons were pulled out from the landslide debris in Torkham after thirty hours. They were shifted to the headquarters hospital in Landikotal.
It may be mentioned here that three days ago a massive landslide took place in Torkham in which dozens of heavy vehicles and drivers were buried alive. A number of trucks parked on the road had also caught fire after the landslide. So far three dead bodies and six injured persons have been pulled out while the rescue operation was underway.
