Grade 9 results announced for three students stuck on Battagram gondola

PESHAWAR: The whole country has been glued to the screen since this morning after six children and two teachers found themselves trapped in a gondola, hanging 900 feet above a ravine in the Allai tehsil of Battagram, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Three of the stuck students were awaiting their board examination results today.

The three students whose grade 9 results were announced while they are stuck in the gondola fighting for their lives, have been identified as Attaullah son of Kifayatullah Shah, who has scored 442 marks, Niaz Muhammad son of Umar Zeib, who attained 412 marks and Usama son of Muhammad Sharif, who secured 391 marks, thus passing the first part of their Secondary School Certification (SSC). 

All three are students of Government High School Batangi, Pashto, Allai, Battagram. 

Ataullah, one of the trapped students, is the second among four brothers. His father works hundreds of kilometers from their village as a security guard in Karachi.

“The gondola is hanging by a single rope. The combination of high winds and the thrust from the helicopter poses a grave danger, causing the gondola to swing violently each time,” is one constant comment of officials that has been doing the rounds in the news since morning.

Waqas Buneri