School children stranded in makeshift chairlift Rescued
ABBOTTABAD:October 15:Around a dozen school children, riding a makeshift cable car to their school, were left dangling in mid-air for around two hours on Friday morning when the pulley operating the car malfunctioned.
The incident took place near Dhamtor, around seven kilometers from the center of Abbottabad city on Friday morning, creating panic among the students as well as parents who rushed to the site after discovering about the incident.
Police and eyewitnesses said that 12 children from the Guldhok village and its surrounding areas had boarded the cable car at around 7:30 am in the morning to reach Muree road before heading to their school in Abbottabad.
The car had traveled half-way when it broke down leaving the children dangling precariously around 10,000 feet about the raging river Daur. “It felt like it (the cable car) was about to fall, plummeting hundreds of meters down into the river Daur”, said Tauseef, a seventh grade student who was stranded in the car.
He elaborated that he had been travelling from his village to Muree Road via the car daily for the last eight years but this was the first time he had experienced such an incident. Rehan, a student of eighth grade, was visibly shaken by the incident. He said that he thought it was the last day of his life and that he would probably return to his parents in a box.
“Initially everyone was smiling thinking that the situation would return to normal within a few seconds but when it dragged beyond that, my heart started racing rapidly with every passing second,” he said, adding that he had never felt fear such as that.
Shahbaz, another eighth grader stranded in the car, said that since the government had failed to make any alternative travel arrangements for people to cross the river, residents would always take risk by travelling through the car.
According to Zubair, the owner of cable car, the pulley mechanism of the cable car which pulls the two iron cables, got stuck hampering its operation.
He added that the pulley had now been repaired by his men and that the car was now operating as normal. However, Tehsil Naib Nazim Sardar Shujah Ahmed has ordered an inquiry into the incident and has suspended the operation of the cable car for an indefinite period.
The naib nazim also recommended legal action but according to police it has yet to lodge a FIR.
Earlier, when the news about the stranded car spread through a news channel, police and rescue 1122 personnel rushed to the site. But they were helpless as there was no available mechanism to reach the spot where the cable car was stuck.
It took around two hours for the owner of the cable car company and its employees to reach and drag the car towards Murree Road and rescue the children.
When the car finally reached its terminal, panic-stricken parents and the stranded children rushed to embrace each other.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 15th, 2016.
