Stranded Souls, Silent Skies By Khizar Hayat Khan A group of families — children clutching their mothers’ hands, men waving helplessly — stand marooned on a shrinking island of rocks. Behind them, a lone tree bends in surrender. Around them, the Swat River roars — not as a source of life, but a sentence of death. Above them? Silence. No helicopters. No boats. No state. This image is not from a warzone, but from a part of Pakistan that sings in tourism ads and development speeches. Swat, the so-called Switzerland of the East, is now witnessing another tragedy — not just of nature, but of neglect. This photo captures more than a moment; it exposes a pattern. Every year, when rains swell the rivers, the same stories surface: people trapped, children lost, families wiped out. And yet, every year, our response system arrives too late — if it arrives at all. The photo asks a haunting question: Where is the state? We know helicopters exist. We see them often — drying cricket grounds, hov...
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