Night-time ban imposed on public transport
BOONI: The district administration of Upper Chitral has banned night-time public transport movement towards Yarkhun and Laspur valleys.
In a statement, the office of the deputy commissioner said the decision was taken in the wake of frequent road accidents and loss of human lives.
In the latest such accident, eight of the 10 people travelling to upper Yarkhun in a land cruiser drowned when the vehicle fell into the river while crossing a bridge in front of Unauch village in upper Yarkhun.
The overloaded taxi was travelling to upper Yarkhun from Chitral town when it met with the fatal accident at 2am on May 30.
It takes over 12 hours to reach upper areas of Yarkhun from Chitral town. Due to lack of transport, the passengers have to travel in these taxi vehicles along with their luggage loaded on the rooftops in highly precarious manner.
Similar has been the case with people of the remote Laspur and Torkhow valleys.
Moreover, the dilapidated bridges and narrow roads to these remote areas also add to such incidents.
The DC office said the departure time from Booni to Laspur and Yarkhun in the summer is 5am and in the winter 6am. There will be a complete ban on public transport to these areas after 8pm.
The statement said strict action would be taken against public transport drivers in case they violated the instructions.
Why there were no such orders before the accident. Does the administration think these instructions are sufficient to stop such occurrences elsewhere such as Khot, Rech, Terich and valleys of Saht, Kosht, Lotowir, Lone, etc.