Caretaker Prime Minister Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar while calling the Battagram cable car rescuers “heroes of the nation”, said that Pakistan’s Army, administration and local champions defied danger to write a new chapter of valour. In a post uploaded on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday morning, PM Kakar said “The heart of Battagram, our heroes rose to the challenge. Our military, administration and local champions, hand in hand, defied danger to write a new chapter of valor. They rescued 8 young souls, proving once more the strength of our unity. Our nation’s spirit shines brightest today. Proud of our heroes!”
In an earlier post, PM Kakar called the rescuers “heroes of the nation”. “Great team work by the military, rescue departments, district administration as well as the local people,” he added. Military helicopters and ziplining commandos rescued eight people, including six schoolboys, who were trapped for hours on Tuesday in a stricken cable car high above a remote valley in Battagram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The daring rescue began with a helicopter plucking a child to safety after almost 12 hours, but it was forced back to base as bad weather closed in and night fell. Then, commandos from Pakistan’s Special Service Group (SSG) — known as the Maroon Berets — used the cable keeping the gondola from plunging into the valley as a zipline to rescue the rest of those stranded.
“I thought it was my last day and I will be no more,” one of the rescued boys, Attaullah Shah, told mnedia “God has granted me a second life,” the 15-year-old said. Local officials earlier said two children had been plucked by helicopter from the stricken gondola, but the military later confirmed only one had been rescued that way. “After tireless efforts by highly skilled pilots and SSG personnel, a child was rescued but the mission had to be cancelled due to bad weather,” the military’s media wing said in a statement.
“Further efforts were then made by the SSG troops and a special zipliner team for this purpose was flown to the crash site by Army helicopters.” Bilal Faizi, an official with Pakistan’s emergency service, said the two adults were the last to be brought to safety. A video of the first rescue showed a teenager in a harness hanging at the bottom of a swinging rope under a helicopter as crowds cheered with relief.
“Once everyone had been rescued, the families started crying with joy and hugging each other,” emergency services official Waqar Ahmad told reporters “People had been constantly praying because there was a fear that the rope might break.
