Police arrest chairlift owner, operators after deadly crash

To be presented before a judicial magistrate today

ABBOTABAD: Police on Friday arrested owner and operators of the private chairlift which on Thursday plunged into a ravine at Charra Pani village in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Hazara division, resulting in death of twelve people, including a women and a child.

The accident had allegedly occurred due to overloading of the chairlift, locally called ‘dolli’. There were also reports that cables of the fateful chairlift were also old and damaged. The improvised chairlift was strung between two mountains in Hazara division, close to the popular tourist resort of Murree.



After the incident, police had registered an FIR at Lora Police Station under section 322 of PPC against the chairlift’s owner Saadulllah and its two operators Asrar Khan and Qamar. The accused will be presented before judicial magistrate Abbottabad on Saturday (today).

The villagers had blamed the operators for overloading the chairlift which, according to them, caused the deadly crash. The operators had fled the scene after the accident. Chairlift accidents are common in the mountainous areas of the country, where such lifts are often used to cross rivers.