Daily Times

Deputy Speaker Balochistan Assembly, Sardar Babar Khan Musakhail has written a letter to Chairman National Disaster Management Authority ((NDMA) seeking his technical support to extinguish raging fire in Shirani district.

In the letter to Chairman NDMA, the deputy speaker said, “Balochistan government has no proper facilities/equipment to extinguish fire which has erupted on Dana Sar forest at high attitude.Keeping in view the whole prevailing situation, the NDMA should provide facilities and equipment to the said district.

Expressing grave concern over the risk to humans and wildlife, the deputy speaker further said that there is a risk of further deforestation and human loss if fire was not brought well under control. He said the federal government is also requested to provide immediate assistance.

It is worth mentioning that on the directives of Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif, a joint operation carried out by the Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps, PDMA and district administration is continuing in the affected district. However, due to the difficult hilly terrains, strong winds and other obstacles, the efforts made in this connection are not yielding required results as inferno is spreading uncontrolled.

As per initial reports, due to the natural lightning, the upper mountainous surface of Dana Sar caught fire before this such hazardous incident was occurred in the KPK province boundary, but now it has been expanded toward the Dana Sar area of district Shirani, home to the world’s largest pine nuts forest and connects Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

The raging inferno, has forced nearby human settlements to move to safer locations, jeopardizing the species of animals and birds.

The fire has claimed the lives of at least three local people who were busy dousing the blaze and left several others injured.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Balochistan Abdul Quddus Bizenjo called on Federal Minister for Housing and Works and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) provincial Ameer Maulana Abdul Wasey at his residence in Quetta.

Parliamentarians including, Muhammad Khan Lehri and Noor Muhammad Dumar, Malik Sikandar Advocate, and Younas Aziz Zehri were also present on the occasion.

A handout issued by the Press Secretary to CM Balochistan said that the CM discussed the ongoing operation to put out Sherani forest fire with the federal minister who was nominated by the PM Shehbaz Sharif as his special representative for updating him about the efforts taken to douse the inferno.

The official handout mentioned that the CM Bizinjo and Maulana Abdul Wasey agreed to make coordinated efforts to extinguish the fire in the Sherani forest.