Hazara University launches heritage management project in upper Chitral

The Hazara University, Manshera has launched a heritage management project in Upper Chitral with the financial assistance of British Council under its International Strategic Partnership in Research & Education (INSPIRE) programme.
Under the one-year project, scientific archaeological excavation tools would be used to explore ancient passes in Upper Chitral. The capacity building of students and two international conferences would also be held in Chitral and Hazara University, Manshera under the programme.
The programme is a joint venture of Hazara University Manshera, Leicester University, United Kingdom, Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU), Mardan under a British Council's INSPIRE programme, said Dr Abdul Samad, project link co-ordinator.
He said the basic objective of the project was to carry out scientific archaeological exploration, to excavate ancient passes, heritage management in Upper Chitral and capacity building of students of the Hazara University.
Dr Samad informed that project had been carried out in different phases with the same objectives in district Chitral, saying that ancient passes in Singoor, Kalash Valley and lower Chitral has so far been explored in first two phases of the project.
In the final phase, he said, the project had been extended to Upper Chitral to explore ancient passes like Borghal, Jinali, Shandur passes, Wakhan corridor, and other ancient passes in the area.
The link co-ordinator said that Hazara University team had already initiated excavation work in Upper Chitral under his supervision from July 01 with other team members, including Mehr Khalil, Fazal Mohamamd, and Ashfaq Ahmad from Hazara University.
He said that the project had been initiated in 2009 by Professor Dr Ahsan Ali, Vice Chancellor, Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU), Mardan and Dr Ruthyoung from Leicester University, UK to strength research institutions under a Memorandum of Standing (MoU), saying that it was running successful for the last two year with financial support of British council.