Armed with saws, ropes, Neelum Valley residents clear blocked roads

When the government ignored their village for months, residents of Kashmir's Neelum Valley decided they had to solve their problems themselves.

They used saws, ropes and their bare hands to remove the ice blocking the road to their village.

The road had been closed for 10 months but the local administration hadn't sent in machinery to clear it. Multiple roads in the northern areas of the country have been sealed for months because of ice and snow collecting.

People moved the ice blocks by attaching ropes and pulling both with their hands and with cars and then cut through the rest with saws.

They have created space for cars to pass through. The road closure had affected their livelihoods, as they weren't able to leave their village to work.