ISLAMABAD: The provincial administration of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday instructed relevant authorities to inspect locally made cable cars after one of them malfunctioned over a ravine in the country’s northwest a day earlier while carrying six children and two adults who remained stuck for about 15 hours before being rescued.

Indigenously made and installed cable cars are regularly used in Pakistan’s remote regions to cross rivers and valleys in the absence of bridges and roads.

Tuesday’s incident took place after local children got into the cable car in Battagram to go to school with accompanying adults. They were halfway through when a cable snapped, leaving the car hanging precariously at an angle all day.

Military helicopters and ziplining commandos jumped in for a rescue operation that lasted for several hours and was the center of attention of media and the Pakistani public.

“The caretaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has directed the inspection of chairlifts across the province, asking deputy commissioners of all districts to inspect them,” said a statement released by the provincial chief secretary.

It instructed administration officials to immediately check all the cable cars at commercial and recreational places along with rivers and canals.

The government also emphasized to ensure there were proper safety measures for cable cars to survive storms, lightning and other disastrous conditions.

According to the instructions of the provincial government, people operating the cable cars would have to secure no-objection certificates from relevant district administrations.

The caretaker government also ordered all deputy commissioners in the province to prepare reports from their respective districts and submit them within a week.

Prior to these instructions, Pakistan’s Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar applauded the daring rescue operation that saved lives in Battagram in a social media post.

“In the heart of #Battagram, our heroes rose to the challenge,” Prime Minister Kakar wrote on messaging platform X, formally called Twitter, on Wednesday. “Our military, administration and local champions, hand in hand, defied danger to write a new chapter of valor.”

“They rescued 8 young souls, proving once more the strength of our unity,” he added. “Our nation’s spirit shines brightest today. Proud of our heroes!”

The daring rescue began with an army helicopter plucking a child to safety after almost 12 hours, but it was forced back to base as bad weather closed in and night fell.

Then, commandos from Pakistan’s Special Service Group (SSG) used the cable keeping the gondola from plunging into the valley as a zipline to rescue the rest of those stranded.

Military helicopters flew several sorties and an airman was lowered by a harness to deliver food, water and medicine to the gondola.

President Arif Alvi also praised the successful rescue mission, saying he was “ecstatic” to see how the children were saved by the collective effort of Pakistani military personnel and local rescuers.

However, he also noted it was important to prevent such incidents from happening in the future, calling on local administrations “to conduct a comprehensive survey of all such local chairlifts to ensure safety of our people in future.”

Pakistan has witnessed cable car accidents in the past, with 10 people killed when a chairlift cable broke in 2017, sending passengers plunging into a ravine in the mountain hamlet of Murree near the capital Islamabad.