Makeshift: Five injured in chairlift accident

BATTAGRAM: Five people, including three children, were injured when a makeshift chairlift, which crosses Nandhayar Khor river, slid backwards due to a mechanical fault. The police said the accident occurred in a village of Kotgala on Monday. All those injured are in stable condition, said hospital sources. The chairlift was made using the hood of a Suzuki van and had been installed several years ago to facilitate residents of several villages to get to Battagram and the rest of the country. Dozens of villagers use the contraption daily, said locals. Pashto writer Ali Zar Khan Fikri, who was among the injured, said he and ten others boarded the chairlift from Kotgala. He added the chairlift covered a distanced of 100 yards when it slipped in the opposite direction in full speed and crashed into a wall, leaving Fikri, three children and another man injured. The operator, Gulzada Khan, explaining the accident, said a screw came loose. He denied the cause of the accident was a rope snapping.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2015.