CHITRAL: Thousands of people from almost all parts of the district attended the four-day Kagh Lusht festival that concluded here on Tuesday.

The green plateau, the venue of the festival, was teeming with people of all age including women, who also enjoyed the event. Spring season is in full bloom in upper Chitral where the 12-kilometre long plateau is situated.

The young folk evinced keen interest in folk sports on the last day of the festival that included target shooting, falconry, tug-of-war and classic football (bampu ghal).

Booni town clinched first position in polo and title in target shooting competition went to Hussain Zareen Charwelo of Raeen Torkhow while Jughoor club won the title of football. The volley ball cup went to Chitral Scouts and cricket match was won by Drosh Club.

Special Assistant to Chief Minister Dr Amjad Ali gave away prizes to the players. He also announced a number of schemes for the development of the area that included launching of Kagh Lusht housing scheme to provide houses to tens of thousands of people.

Dr Amjad said that the township scheme would be second only to Hayatabad in the province that would be planned in such a way to provide all the modern facilities to the people.

“The poor, the destitute, the widow of those who lost their lives in war against terrorism and media persons will be allotted 2,000 plots free of cost,” he said. He added that Shandur festival would be held in a benefiting manner to make it an international event to attract foreign tourists and create job opportunities for the unemployed local youth.

Dr Amjad said that Shandur pasture and polo ground was the undisputed territory of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and no one would be allowed to play politics on it.

He said that Kagh Lusht festival would be included in the calendar of events of the provincial government from the next year so that it could be turned into a mega event.

MPA Sardar Hussain and PTI district convener Rahmat Ghazi Khan also spoke on the occasion and termed Kagh Lusht housing scheme a milestone in the development of the backward area.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2015

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