Rescuers who freed children and adults from broken cable car honored by Pakistan's prime minister
An empty cable car dangles hundreds of meters above the ground, in Pashto village, a mountainous area of Battagram district in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. The rescue of six school children and two adults who were plucked from a broken cable car that was dangling precariously hundreds of meters (yards) above a steep gorge was a miracle, a survivor said Wednesday. The teenager said he and the others felt repeatedly that death was imminent during the 16-hour ordeal. Credit: AP/Saqib Manzoor
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s prime minister has paid tribute to the commandos and volunteers who rescued six children and two adults from the broken cable car where they dangled over a valley in a 16-hour ordeal.
At the ceremony Thursday in Islamabad with the eight rescued people in attendance, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar embraced the rescuers and handed them certificates in acknowledgement of their actions, saying he was proud of them.
In televised remarks, Kakar said when he heard the news on Tuesday, he felt as if his own son was among those trapped in the broken cable car.
The rescue hundreds of meters (yards) above a river canyon in Battagram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the northwest, transfixed Pakistanis and was widely hailed for its successful outcome.
Initially, one of the youngest was grabbed by a commando attached to a helicopter by rope, while others were lowered to the ground with the help of volunteers using a makeshift chairlift built by villagers from a wooden bed frame and ropes.
The children, from 11 to 15 years old, were headed to school. Locally made cable cars gliding across steep valleys in the mountainous region are widely used to cut travel time to schools, workplaces and businesses.
One of the adults rescued appealed to the government to build a school in the area and link their village to nearby towns with a bridge and a road so people would not experience such ordeals.
Local residents gather near the incident site, in Pashto village, a mountainous area of Battagram district in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. The rescue of six school children and two adults who were plucked from a broken cable car that was dangling precariously hundreds of meters (yards) above a steep gorge was a miracle, a survivor said Wednesday. The teenager said he and the others felt repeatedly that death was imminent during the 16-hour ordeal. Credit: AP/Saqib Manzoor
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
