Four days on, traffic between Rawalpindi and Muzaffarabad remained suspended on Thursday after a massive landslide blocked the road near Kohala.
The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) roads and communication department has failed to clear the damaged road near Kohala, some 30 kilometres from here, leaving Muzaffarabad cut off from the rest of the country.
The closure has left people in the area with no option but to ascend the high peaks in the area to get wherever they are going.
“I had to walk for 70 minutes to reach Muzaffarabad. I don’t know why the government is not using machines to remove the debris,” said Muhammad Hanif, a local.
Another man, Haroon Raja, said it was negligent of the authorities to leave the road blocked for so long.
An elderly man, Zaman Khan, was carrying a bag of flour on his shoulder. He demanded that the government constructed an underpass in the landslide-prone area to properly address the problem.
AJK Minister for Communication and Roads Chaudhry Abdul Rashid claimed that orders have been issued to clear the debris.
Meanwhile, more than 20 houses were “badly damaged” and 30 were “partially damaged” by a heavy landslide in the Chakar area of Hattian Bala district, some 60 kilometres from here.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 28th, 2014.