The Karakoram highway (KKH) has been blocked in the limits of the Lotar police station in Upper Kohistan due to a heavy landslide since Monday night, police officials said today.
This disconnects Gilgit Baltistan and parts of Kohistan from the rest of the country, leaving hundreds of travelers and families stranded on both sides of the international route.
Last week, the KKH was reopened to traffic after the company executing the Dasu hydropower project in Upper Kohistan district removed a massive landslide that had blocked the road earlier in the week.
Upper Kohistan control room police official Minhajuddin confirmed the road blockade via phone to Dawn.com, while Gilgit Baltistan’s Diamer district police officer’s assistant Abdul Khaliq also confirmed the blockage.
“The Karakoram Highway has been blocked since last night at Lotar area, which is the limits of Upper Kohistan. I just recently contacted an official in Kohistan police who said the landslide is massive, and its opening till late night is not possible with a single cleaning machine,” Khaliq said.
He added that passengers were stranded on both sides of the block. however, Diamer police were on the roads to inform the travelers heading down towards Islamabad and other cities that they would wait in Chilas city till the road opens.
Minhajuddin at the Upper Kohistan control room told Dawn.com that work on the road opening was underway, but the boulders were big and blocked over a 100-meter portion of the road in the Lotar area.
He said the stranded passengers were being served with Iftari in Kohistan by the local people and administration as the KKH was blocked for the fifth time over the last 10 days.
Ali Shah Sharliat, a passenger, told Dawn.com that he was traveling towards Gilgit and got stuck on the way along with his family and was waiting for the road closure, but the pace of road clearance was not only slow but comprised single-machine work at the point.
He said the weather was cold and that he was experiencing hardships while fasting with family.
He urged the government to fix this issue permanently because the KKH gets blocked often, mostly in the Kohistan and Diamer areas, and even people lose their precious lives due to landslides.
Earlier in the month, two brothers were killed after being struck by a landslide at the same point, Lotar, when they were traveling back to Bisham from Gilgit.
Last month, passengers traveling to and from Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad were stuck on the KKH as heavy rains caused landslides that blocked the main road at several points in Kohistan.
