dpa
islamabad
Members of the northern Pakistani community affected by the dramatic cable car accident on Tuesday have expressed relief that the ordeal is behind them, but also fear for the impact on their everyday lives.
“I feel good to be back with my family,” Niaz Muhammad, a 10th grade student who was one of the eight passengers trapped in the broken cable car, told DPA.
The cable car carrying six students and two adults dangled on one sole cable for about 15 hours until all the passengers were rescued in a highly risky operation by elite commandos and local volunteers.
All six children trapped in the cable car are enrolled in Government High School Batangi Pashto.
The school has 326 students and more than 100 students normally cross the valley using the cable car each day.
“I’m not sure that school children will be using the cable car again,” Muhammad’s father Umar Zaib said. Zaib said that his son was shaken and that he would start sending him to school again at some point, but he wasn’t sure when.
“I think the parents’ confidence has been shattered and they might be hesitant sending their children through the cable car in the future,” Ali Asar, head teacher at the government school told DPA.
Asar said that he has spoken to all the parents whose children were trapped.
The total commute for children to school including the one-minute ride in the cable car is around 50 minutes, as the school is not close to the cable car station.
The pupils would have to walk for an extra 40 minutes on top of that across the valley if the cable car remained out of action, Asar said.
Villages in northern Pakistan often travel using makeshift chairlifts and cable cars to cross rivers and cut the distances in hilly areas.
