Owais Mughal

Following is the text of a leaflet that will be be dropped in Mehsud areas in coming days. The text is both in Urdu and Pashto. Urdu part is shown here.
Clicking on the text image to the left will take you to its source webpage where you can view both Urdu and Pashto versions.

This is a positive gesture in my view and may counter the propaganda which local people are subjected to by the enemies of Pakistan. One has to distinguish between good guys and bad guys here and try to get as many good guys on your side as possible. English translation of the message is given below:

Owais Mughal

Clicking on the photos in this article will take you to their larger image.

Among many other things at ATP; we have tried to introduce to our readership; the Railway heritage of Pakistan. In the past we’ve had posts on Khyber Pass Railway, the Bolan Pass Railway and Khojak Tunnel. Today we will introduce yet another historic and scenic railway route which once existed in the Balochistan province and Chappar Rift was considered as its main attraction.

The first railway link to Quetta was inaugurated in 1886 via Bolan Pass. A year later another rail route to Quetta was opened via Harnai, Khost, Chappar Rift and Bostan. This route through Chappar Rift, though non-existent today, has been considered one of the most revered engineering projects in this part of the world. The map to the left gives the location of Chappar Rift. Many rail hobbyists around the world try to emulate the scenery of Chappar Rift in their models and many others still visit the area to see the remains of what was once a very scenic railway. A retouched color replica of an original photo from Chappar Rift is given to the top right. An approaching train over a viaduct is visible. Can you spot couple of signalmen standing in the photo? This photo is orignally dated circa 1895.

Owais Mughal

To compete with the grandeur of Abul Haul (The Sphinx) in Egypt, Karachi has come up with its own version. Should we call it Abul Hathi?