Landslide: One killed, property damaged

KOHISTAN: One person was killed, and a hotel, a shop and two trucks were damaged in a landslide near Komela, some two kilometres from district headquarters. Police quoted Leo Khan, a hotel owner in Zaidkar Nala village, as saying that he and four other workers were asleep when at around 12:30am, a hillock fell on the hotel, destroying it. The people inside had enough time to get out, he added. However, the owner of a neighbouring grocery shop, Gul Shehzada, was trapped under the debris and killed. The landslide also damaged two loaded trucks parked outside the hotel. The landslide blocked the Karakoram Highway (KKH) for over 20 hours as the district authorities had no arrangement for the removal of the debris. The body of the deceased was recovered after the Frontier Works Organisation blasted the debris. The KKH was reopened for traffic at around 5pm.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2013.