Residents of Bara tehsil in Khyber district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are facing severe difficulties due to the absence of a bridge over the Bara River, forcing them to transport patients across the river on their shoulders using charpoys and donkeys.

According to local residents, no connecting bridge has been constructed in the area for the past 70 years. As a result, women, children and men who fall ill have to be carried on charpoys for around five kilometres on foot to reach a road. From there, they must travel another 70 kilometres by vehicle to reach hospitals in Bara or Peshawar.

Tribal elders and representatives of the Khidmat-e-Khalq Welfare Society said the absence of a bridge poses serious risks to patients, particularly pregnant women, mothers and newborns, as well as those requiring emergency medical care.

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Tribal elders Wak Khan, Hashmat Khan and Haji Masal Khan, along with Qazi Farman, coordinator for Upper Bara at the Khidmat-e-Khalq Welfare Society, local residents and social activist Tariq Khan, have urged the authorities to immediately approve the construction of a vehicle-accessible bridge over the Bara River on humanitarian grounds.

According to the elders, they have repeatedly raised the issue with the relevant authorities and senior government officials, but no practical progress has been made so far.

They appealed to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor, the Peshawar corps commander and the Inspector General of Frontier Corps (FC) North to take notice of the hardships faced by Upper Bara residents and ensure the construction of the bridge.

The elders lamented that the situation made it seem as though the people of Upper Bara had no right to government resources, adding that the lack of basic facilities had made their lives miserable.