Pakistan was glued to its TV screens for almost 15 hours on Tuesday as rescuers tried to save eight children stranded in a cable car in Battagaram.
The rescue operation eventually succeeded without loss of life, but a major question lingered: what took so long.
Sahib Khan, the man who was involved in rescuing seven out of eight passengers in the cable car has now revealed the reason. The locals just did not trust him.
Khan told Urdu News that he had prepared a contraption, akin to a local bed or charpai, that he intended to hitch onto the cable car’s wire and get the children out.
However, when he completed his preparation, an army helicopter was still trying to get the passengers out. When he approached the locals, they said they did not trust him and refused to give him persmission.
The cable car dangled 600 feet over a stream as the army helicopter tried to get them out using a sling operation. However, they only managed to save one kid before darkness fell and the operation had to be halted.
With things at a standstill, Sahib Khan approached the locals for permission again. He promised them that he could bring back everyone within two hours. It still took alot of pleading to get their consent.
Khan mounted his makeshift rescue vehicle on to the wire on which the ill-fated cable car was dangling and went on his way.
The evening prayers and sounded by this time and darkness enveloped him from all sides. Khan pressed forward. At the time of the interview, his hands were still hurting.
This was not Khan’s first operation, he had already rescued people in similar situations in Shangla, Kohistan, Skardu and Gilgit.
Still, he was fighting not just to save the passengers but to restore the faith of the locals who did not believe he could succeed where the Special Services Group had failed.
When he arrived at the cable car, the passengers were dumbstruck. They asked him why he had come over to die with them.
However, Khan told them no one would die and he would take each one of them to safety.
He then saw that one child was crying and fainting, so he decided to save him first. When he finally got the child to safety, the locals finally believed in him and started helping.
They went back twice, saving three children in the first and the remaining passengers including the teacher in the second.
