…As angry protesters accuse government of lackadaisical attitude towards rescue of persons trapped in the landslide debris
TORKHAM BORDER: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan and governor Haji Ghulam Ali on Wednesday paid visit to Torkham border and inspected the place where the missive landslide took place two days.
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 were also accompanied the governor.
Muhammad Azam Khan and Haji Ghulam Ali inspected the rescue operation and showed a great concern over the slow pace of rescue workers. They issued strict directives to local authorities to provide heavy machinaries so that the rescue operation could be completed in minimum time.
As the governor and caretaker chief minister arrived to Torkham from Landikotal halipaid 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 machinaries 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 conductimg photo sessions.
An Afghan citizen, Gul Agha told this scribe that his cousins and their helpers have burried under the huge heap of debris. He said their trucks also burried 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 returnning 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 grievences would be addressed.
Social worker and local elder Ilyas Shinwari led the delegation met with Chief Minister and governor at Michni check post in Lamdikotal.
He said they requested the CM and governor to arrange every possible machinaries to pull out the dead bodies quickly. He said they told the VVIPs that government must compensate those who lost their lives and suffered economical loses. He said they also placed the demand of inquiry against National Logistic Cell as due their negligence and corruption the incident happened. He accused NLC that it was the first time 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 fulfill it.
Mean while,two more injured persons were pulled out from the landslide debris in Torkham after thirty hours. They were shifted to 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 burried alive.A number of trucks parked on the road had also caught fire after landslide. So far three dead bodies and six injured persons have been pulled out while rescue operation was underway.
