Islamabad: Terror threat fails to deter hikers on the Margalla Hills

[Naveed Yaseen]

Noor Aftab
The number of hikers on hiking tracks has increased dramatically even at the time when potential threat of terrorism has already become one of the ‘hot’ topics among the residents in the federal capital.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has set up various hiking tracks, avoiding use of traditional construction material during their development to maintain the natural character of the environment.

After some terrorist incidents in other parts of the country in the recent past, the security of the capital city was beefed up to an unprecedented level, much to create a sense of fear among the people who were really hesitant to visit public places.

“We are not really confident that all is well in the town, but we cannot confine ourselves to our homes,” said Shahida Batool, a visitor at track III.

She said whenever there is some kind of terrorist incident, the people feel scared and avoid visiting public places. “Fortunately the situation in the city is quite better for the last few weeks due to which visitors again start thronging the hiking tracks,” she said.

Two of the hiking tracks including track III and V are largely attracting the visitors where long queues of motor vehicles can be seen till sunset.

The track III stretching from a point on the Margalla Road near Super Market to a village namely Murad Gali in Pir Sohawa area provides enough natural settings to environment-loving people. But the visitors, some of them also come with their children, are seen complaining about lack of clean drinking water facility on the track.

“Benches are available at various points of the track III to rest for a while but lack of clean drinking water is really a problem now-a-days,” said Zulfiqar Kiyani, a visitor.

He said if clean drinking water is available on the track then people would not bring with them bottles of distilled water, which are often thrown in the woods after their usage.

After deployment of security guards on hiking tracks now the situation is quite better and the visitors especially women do not feel any kind of fear while hiking through the track.

There were some incidents in which female hikers were teased time and again by ill-minded persons, but the concerned authorities have now made elaborate arrangements for security of hikers. “The people of our city are fond of recreational activities and they always try to utilise all available options provided by the local civic authorities,” said Umer Riaz, an employee at a private local bank.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=181595