Our Correspondent
Dir Upper
The two-day snow sports and culture festival at scenic Kumrat valley would kick of from Saturday (today), DC Upper Dir, Khalid Iqbal Khattak said here on Friday.
Talking to media during his visit to Tourist Center setup by Tourism Corporation, KP in the main Dir bazaar, a gate way to Kumrat valley, Khalid Iqbal said, the district administration with the strong support of TCKP is going to hold Kumrat Sports and Culture Festival during winter season and all arrangements have already been finalized in the supervision of DSO Mukhtiar Hussain.
Accompanied with AAC Dir Upper Ijaz Akhtar, DSO Mukhtar Hussain, DC Dir Upper said according to the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, holding of Snow Sports and Culture Festival would provide golden opportunity to local and foreign tourists for being entertained with the atmosphere as fresh two-feet snow fall recorded last night which further added to the beauty of the scenic tourists spot in Kumrat luring large number of visitors.
He said snow games would help emerging new talent who could be able to represent Pakistan in the winter Games as well. He said Kumrat Festival always attracted both local and foreign tourists.
He added that previous year the event attracted a decent number of local and foreigner tourists and hoped that this time the festival was expected to attract more people as compared to last year.
Besides development of tourism, the festival would also promote healthy sports activities and thus, helping youth to exhibit their talents, he informed.
He said tourists guideline desks had been established on various points to provide guidance to tourists, while maximum work had been completed on the construction of roads to the valley. He said there would be more than a dozen different games in Kumrat Sports and Culture Festival including motor racing, snowboarding, horseback riding, showcasing locally made handicrafts, horse and cattle show and other colourful events including football, cricket, volleyball, tug of war, snow volleyball, athletics, kabaddi on snow, ice hockey, skating, local games Sakhay, archery, guli Tanda, installation of local food stalls would also part of the overall festival.
‘Sakhay’ is a traditional game played with one leg as the other is tied up to the hand. ‘The Sakhay is really good to watch as it is a unique sport as other games are common all over Pakistan,’ DC Upper Dir added. The festival is also featuring jeep and horse races, snow rugby, snow wrestling, snow race, snow art, snow ball fighting, snow culture lighting, kite flying and colours competitions, skating, painting and other activities.
