Deputy Commissioner (DC) Irfanullah Mehsood stated a flood in Upper Kohistan damaged part of the Karakoram Highway on Monday. Mehsood informed Dawn that heavy rainfall flooded the Lachi nullah in Upper Kohistan’s Harban Tehsil.
He added the flood damaged a mosque, police station, hotel, and other houses. It also swept away a part of the Karakoram Highway, stranding “hundreds of passengers,” including families.
Mehsood stated that restoring the route would “take days”. Harban-Bhasha Tehsil Chairman Asadullah Quraishi said that police and residents were evacuated from the area when the Lachi nullah torrent drew closer.
Because the Karakoram Highway is closed every day due to bad weather, the tehsil chairman feared food shortages in Upper Kohistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. He added that restoring the damaged portion of the highway could take weeks.
The Karakoram Highway traffic was stopped in nine locations in Diamer on Sunday, opened for moderate traffic around midnight, then blocked again today.
As a result, travel and commercial activity in the region has come to a grinding halt.
