In Shishkat, rumbling tremors worry locals
The blasts were so severe that it seemed as if the earth was moving, the villager said of the bang.
GILGIT:
Underground tremors and blasts have created panic among the residents of villages adjacent to Attabad, a small hamlet devastated by a massive landslide early 2009, people said on Friday.
“We heard several bangs from underground all night,” said Hamid Hussain, a resident of Shishkat, a village upstream of Attabad.
The landslide that struck Attabad blocked the Hunza River and formed a lake that expanded upstream, submerging the lower part of Shishkat.
The blasts were so severe that it seemed as if the earth was moving, the villager said of the bang.
The villagers said they were afraid of the tragedy repeating itself anytime as the mystery continues. At least 19 people died in the landslide that cut off Gojal from the rest of the country.
Villagers in Shishkat and Gulmit insisted that before the Attabad disaster, the situation there was somewhat similar to that of the present one, as people had heard underground blasts and felt tremors.
Officials requesting anonymity said that the Hunza assistant commissioner had dispatched a letter to the deputy commissioner (DC) informing him of the situation. They said that the DC further wrote a letter to FOCUS, asking them to conduct a survey to find the cause of the disruptions.
A senior government official in Hunza said that they will have the issue investigated by experts, adding that a nongovernmental organisation will be undertaking a survey of the whole region.
Gilgit-Baltistan Home Secretary Asif Lodhi noted that the region is situated on a fault line, which causes tremors.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2011.
Underground tremors and blasts have created panic among the residents of villages adjacent to Attabad, a small hamlet devastated by a massive landslide early 2009, people said on Friday.
“We heard several bangs from underground all night,” said Hamid Hussain, a resident of Shishkat, a village upstream of Attabad.
The landslide that struck Attabad blocked the Hunza River and formed a lake that expanded upstream, submerging the lower part of Shishkat.
The blasts were so severe that it seemed as if the earth was moving, the villager said of the bang.
The villagers said they were afraid of the tragedy repeating itself anytime as the mystery continues. At least 19 people died in the landslide that cut off Gojal from the rest of the country.
Villagers in Shishkat and Gulmit insisted that before the Attabad disaster, the situation there was somewhat similar to that of the present one, as people had heard underground blasts and felt tremors.
Officials requesting anonymity said that the Hunza assistant commissioner had dispatched a letter to the deputy commissioner (DC) informing him of the situation. They said that the DC further wrote a letter to FOCUS, asking them to conduct a survey to find the cause of the disruptions.
A senior government official in Hunza said that they will have the issue investigated by experts, adding that a nongovernmental organisation will be undertaking a survey of the whole region.
Gilgit-Baltistan Home Secretary Asif Lodhi noted that the region is situated on a fault line, which causes tremors.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2011.