Thread by @meemainseen

#KKH
A High Altitude Wonder
and its Master Builders and Martyrs
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Towards the end of 50s Chinese and Pakistani Engineers started carving a road in Karakoram Mountains, a region with arctic winters and sizzling summers
It took them 20 years and a generation of martyrs

a thread

My fascination with KKH goes back to my childhood and it's not an overstatement
The passion might have been fueled by Pak-China joint teleplays of 80s
Paiman e Wafa and Rishtay aur Rastay
Behroze Sabzwari played an officer of Pak Army Engineers deputed on KKH in the latter

A childhood love affair, a seasoned romance with a wish to reach all the way up north to a place where the land changed nationality
That dream was to realize years later, but much before I eventually took the wheel due north I was on an aerial route to China
and the year was 2004

On a professional course in Nanjing we had a special visitor
A retired PLA officer from Engineers Corps came to see us Pakistanis
The gentleman was there when the road was being built
He built the road
He came to renew the bondage, to retell the stories
... of love and sacrifice

Karakoram Highway completed in 1979, open to tourist traffic in early 80s
It was a feat of heroic accomplishment, a lot many lives were lost building it, a lot many others maintaining it
In 2006 when I drove on KKH I made it a point to halt by these memorials, as many as I could

"WE PIONEERED THE MIGHTY KARAKORAMS AND CARVED A ROAD WITH BLOOD"
Somewhere near Thakot Bridge is this 1978 memorial honouring six soldiers of 1 Signal Company who lost their lives restoring communication on KKH

Not very far from Pattan another stone remembers Subedar Gohar Rehman and two soldiers of 142 Road Maintenance Battalion who lost their lives in Aug of 1978
Just in the neighborhood a relatively recent memorial remembers Lance Naik Amjad of same unit, date of shahadat:23 Dec 1997

On Dassu - Chalas stretch, beside the winding road carved into the mountains stands this tiny monument
It remembers another giant
Signalman Muhammad Afzal of 63 Signal Battalion who laid down his life on 8 Nov 1978

Ahead of Jaglot away from KKH, Skardu Road is an 8 hour challenging stretch, it has it's own tale of the craftsmanship and perseverance of Pakistan Army Engineers Corps and its countless martyrs
A tribute to selfless and courageous Sappers

KKH came with its tough challenges to driving
The road is strewn with memories of tragic road accidents
Near Dasu is a memorial to lives lost by 41 Punjab (Allah Wali) in Jul 97
Beside army plaque a humble stone has carved names of driver & conductor of the ill fated NATCO Bus

"Sometime in the future when others will ply The KKH little will they realize the amount of sweat, courage, dedication, endurance & human sacrifice that has gone into the making of this road
But as you drive along, tarry a little, to say a short prayer for those silent brave men"