Chitral Festival: All good things come to an end!

Report Waqar Ahmed (Photos S. Nazir Hussain)
CHITRAL, Oct 10: As all good things come to an end, so did the 10-day long Jashan-e-Chitral on Thursday.

The main attraction of the final day was a polo match when Chitral A outclassed its traditional rival Gigit-Baltistan by one to 12 goals. The guest team remained under pressure right from the beginning and could not get into full control of the match at any stage. By half time, Chitral was leading by four to one goal. But in the second session, the guest team could not score a goal while the Chitralis continued their attack and scored eight more goals.

The Chitral Festival was organized by the Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The event which continued for 10 days included polo matches, football, cricket, volley ball, tug of war, buz kashi, buddi dik, horse race, mountain race, paragliding, arrow throwing, stone throwing, donkey polo, cultural show, chess, marathon race, local wresting, Chat Chato Drek and other games.
Zareen Charvelu of Torkhow won the shooting competition by traditional Siakhaman gun while Dr Mumtaz was the winner of chess.
It may be noted that people here were unhappy because for the first time in many years Shandur Polo 2013 had to be cancelled due to the floods and rains in July and August which disrupted many roads between Chitral and Gilgit.
Jash-e-Chitral gave the people of Chitral the opportunity to witness the mightiest teams of Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan battle it out at not in Shandur but at Chitral. The team of Chitral won the match with total 12 goals against one Gilgit-Baltistan team on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion, MPA Saleem Khan announced 200 million rupees for the upgradation of the Chitral polo ground. He appreciated the district management for organizing the festival to provide an opportunity to the local people to enjoy different games and sports.

Shehriyar Afridi, a PTI MNA from Kohat, said that the provincial government was going to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Turkey to make Chitral a model district in terms of development. “We want to make Chitral a prosperous and fully developed district of the province. Jashan-e-Chitral will also be made an annual feature.”

Zafar Khaliq Taj, the secretary to the governor of Gilgit-Baltaistan, in his speech said that people of Chitral and Giglit-Baltistan had centuries-old cultural and socio-economic relations. He said it was the need of the hour that the people of the two areas should be brought closer by arranging such festivals and events. At the end, Chitral MNA Iftikharuddin thanked all the guests.