Section 144 imposed: Locals told to stay away from frozen lake

People would cross over Attabad lake to reach villages on the opposite side.

GILGIT: The Hunza-Nagar administration has imposed Section 144 to keep away from the frozen Attabad lake in an attempt to prevent mishaps, residents and officials said on Sunday.

“The decision has been taken in the larger interest of the people of Hunza and Gojal,” the Deputy Commissioner of Hunza-Nagar Zafar Waqar Taj told The Express Tribune by telephone on Sunday.

The 23-kilometer long lake was formed in January 2010 after a massive landslide, which blocked the Hunza River at Attabad.

The lake also submerged a major portion of the strategic Karakoram Highway, displacing nearly 25,000 people in Hunza.

In December, freezing temperatures in the region turned the upper part of the lake into an ice sheath, forcing suspension of boat services, which was the only means of transportation for people living on either side of the lake.

The suspension of boat services left people of villages including Shishkart, and Ainabad with no option, but to walk on the frozen lake to see each other or reach Hunza.

The district administration head Zafar Waqar Taj said police checkpoints have been set up near the lake to bar people from walking over the surface.

“But if people violate it, they will be taken to task,” he said, adding that cracks have developed on the surface of the frozen lake and the slightest pressure can break the ice.

He said that the ban will remain in force as long as the situation doesn’t get better. “We can’t give any time-frame, but what is being done is in the interest of the public,” he said.

Sifatud Din, a resident of Gojal said he saw at least two checkpoints near the lake manned by policemen.

Meanwhile, the government has started chopper services for stranded people in Gojal.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th,  2011.