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Fairy Land Lost its galore

A village of merry making people, a land of peace and serenity, a valley of romance and age old folk lore, song, a tomb of great Sufi Saint Mohammed Rizay Wali and a birth place of folk poet Ziarat Khan and plenty of natural beauty is called Sonoghor- lies at a distance of 95 Km from District Head Quarter Chitral. The very word Sonoghor formerly Sae Noghor stands for three forts built by Seramng about 12th century at three places I,e Dok dor, Atalighan dor and Noghor. It lies at a total area of 9 Square Km with a population of 330 households. Sonoghor is the only village in Chitral which kept its long standing values due to its unique cultural heritage and specific geography resulting preservation of old custom, traditions, folklore, songs and observance of age old festivals. This is the reason that in July, August people all over Chitral flock over to Sonoghor to make its presence there.
The village lies adjacent to the Mastuj River having gushing water, crystal clear glacier at the mountain top and greenery all around makes the village a true fairy land plus three hundreds years old trees of mulberries and apricots multiply its beauty and galore. Due to its unique landscape the valley observes different seasons and weather cycle from rest of the Chitral, here the seasons does not change all together rather overlap each other so various fruits are supposed to be available irrespective of any season.
The village encloses its lap different stories regarding fairies who according to the old mythology use to visit the village on different occasions like }pathak Dik | Nawroz celebrated at the commence of spring on March 21 each year} and mix with the people to celebrate the festival. Like wise the fairies are seen at different spring on the high pasture to wash their cloths. The valley is also rich with the miracles of Mohammad Rizai Wali _ a great Sufi saint of 16th century who propagated Islam in the valley and made its permanent resident here. His tomb still hold great reverence and respect among the local people who visit it on different occasions to pay homage to the great sufi saint.
It is widely believed that the Katoor dynasty took off from here to rule over Chitral while Raise dynasty last its breath here. The land has the prestige of being the birth place of Ziarat Khan _ a poet of Nature who gave new impetus to the Chitrali poetry and beauty of the village and gave a true romantic touch to the village through its Khowar Songs by making its beauty immortal. His popular folk songs like Janat Sonoghor ta nam Baghi gul {Sonoghor the Paradise your name is garden and roses} janat Sonoghor ta sora khor shairy {Paradise Sonoghor there is something above you}.
It was a night of June 29 2007 when a huge bang jolted the entire village leaving the villagers at lurch, as no body was certain that what has happened around. It was after the broke of the dawn when a panic erupted across the village | knowing | that a glacier on the mountain top has erupted and transformed in to mud flow and debris avalanches creating threat to the lives and properties of the inhabitants of the valley. Initially the flood dissected the village into two parts-- Fortunately the residents of the lower parts made its way out towards village Miragram south east of the village. Tragically the residence of the upper section took refuge in the hilltop between village Sarghoz and Sonoghor as the bridges connecting Sonoghor with rest of the Chitral were smashed away by raising of River Mastuj.
It was after three days when the flood engulfed entire village slashing away standing crops, cattle, fruit trees, irrigation channels and the only Siphon system the only irrigation source of irrigation of village Parwak.
Tragically this beautiful village of Fairies lost age old fruit trees, houses, standing crops and washed away the already poor infrastructure leaving the 500 house holds in total isolation from rest of the world for a week. The traumatic experience was so sever that it left huge scare on the mind of the people It was after a week when a rescue team with Helicopter reached the area and evacuated the effected population from here to nearby Parwak Village across the river Mastuj.
Paradoxically after a lapse of one year the people of the village are in doldrums due to the poor physical infrastructure, power supply, clean drinking water {an untoward incident has already took place on drinking water at village Sonoghor}. Health sector and tormented condition of virgin land are also needs repair and rejuvenation what the June 29 catastrophic disaster has caused..
Till now I have not heard any positive step taken by any NGO nor any Government department bothered to pinch point the causes of the glacier eruption. I think it would be unwise to declare it all of sudden incident, which may not occur in future. The people of the valley whom I have had meeting almost every day are traumatized and can not afford to experience such an incident in future.

The need of the hour is to bring fourth the causative factors of the incident although it is late but never ever, that may not only restore the people confidence on new setup but would be an instrumental to prepare the people for any untoward incident in future. The survey shall clear the future strategy for the valley to declare
Some covert opinion is underway that Sonoghor should be declare an “Organic Village” a village with all kinds of natural characteristics {as experienced in Gilgit} where tourist passage is bound to observe true traditional and folksy way of life, where all kinds of facilities are said to be abhorred. In reply the affected community would be awarded sufficient compensation apart from rehabilitation of the villagers.
The third pragmatic option is likely to arrange an all time way out to the flood { if occurred, so }so as to avoid any further lose of human lives and live stock and properties, so as to make the valley a safe piece of land.

Shafiq Ahmad
Booni, Chitral