CHITRAL: A man was killed and eleven others were injured when a passenger van plunged into a ravine here on Tuesday.

The van was on way from Peshawar to Chitral city. Police said the vehicle skidded off a snow-covered track and plunged into a ravine.

As a result, Munawar Khan of Goldur village died on the spot, while eleven others were injured. They were identified as Amirullah, Minhajud Din and Mohammad Akbar of Reshun village, Wajahat Ullah, Mehrab Hussain and Raheem Ullah of Broze village, Noor Elahi of Ayun and Abdullah of Bumburate.

The injured were shifted to the tehsil headquarters hospital by the personnel of Chitral Scouts and police, where two of them were said to be in critical condition.

HOUSING SCHEME OPPOSED: The residents of Morder village of upper Chitral have demanded of the government to remove their reservations before launching the proposed housing scheme in Kagh Lusht area.

Addressing a press conference here the other day, the village elders said Kagh Lusht had grazing land for many villages, including Morder. They said their village had already been hit by natural disasters, including landslides, land erosion and water logging, consuming over half of their cultivable lands during the past four decades.

They added that flashfloods of last year had worsened the situation.

They said that in the existing situation, they had no option but to rehabilitate themselves in Kagh Lusht, but the announcement of the provincial government to execute a housing scheme there had worried them.

ANTI-ENCROACHMENT DRIVE: The president of Hamadard Party Chitral, Shahzada Riazuddin, has appreciated the anti-encroachment drive launched by the district administration.

Talking to reporters here he appealed to the provincial government not to transfer the deputy commissioner Osama Ahmed Warraich from the district till all the encroachments were not removed from every nook and corner of Chitral.

He said polo grounds in every village of the district had been encroached upon due to which the popular game was losing its charm.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2016