Attabad Lake aftermath: ‘No greeting like a postal greeting’

Locals urge govt to restore postal service between Pakistan and China.

GILGIT:

The Attabad landslide and the ongoing expansion work on Karakoram Highway have greatly affected postal services between Pakistan and China, locals complained on Wednesday.

“We have been unable to send and receive letters and other greetings from our relatives across the border since the incident at Attabad,” said Abdur Rehman Bukhari, general secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan Overseas Chinese Association (G-BOCA).

G-BOCA is the regional body of the ex-Chinese nationals known as Ugur. This Muslim community had migrated from Sinkiang province of China before partition and is now settled in Gilgit-Baltistan and Rawalpindi. Now totalling around 5,000 families, the community continues to maintain ties with their relatives in Kashgar and other parts of Sinkiang in China.

Bukhari said that people of the community used to exchange greeting cards on every important occasion like Eid or marriages, but following the disaster at Attabad it has all been disturbed. The service has been suspended for the past two months, he said, and urged the regional government to take appropriate measures to have it restored.

Bukhair said that they are connected with their relatives in Sinkiang province through telephone but said “it is no replacement for postal service”. Postal service is like a cultural knot between people of the two countries and should not be abandoned following arrival of the new communication techniques like SMS via mobiles, he explained.

An official in the Pakistan Postal Service at Gilgit said that postal services have been affected owing to the Attabad Lake and the deteriorating condition of Karakoram Highway (KKH).

In early 2010, a massive landslide swept away a small hamlet called Attabad at Hunza, killing nearly 20 people and injuring many others. The landslide also blocked Hunza River, forming an over 20 kilometres long lake that submerged a large portion of the strategic KKH.

The expansion work on KKH is underway from Raycot Bridge to Hunza, but is causing inconvenience to commuters. According to official sources, the work will be completed by 2012.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2011.