Archaeological awareness expidition Heritage Caravan to visit Swat Valley soon: Dr. Samad

PESHAWAR (APP): The Heritage caravan will visit to scenic valley of Swat under the third phase of archeological awareness expedition shortly. The tourism corporation Khyber Pakhtunkwa (TC-KPK) is being carrying out a campaign for the last several months to keep general masses aware about historical importance of archeological sites and rich culture of different parts of the province, said Dr. Abdul Samad, Consultant Directorate of Archeology & Museums Khyber Pakhtunkwa.Under the first two phases, he said that the Heritage Caravan visited historic sites in district Swabi and Mardan, and also explored the rich culture of Chitral. Following the successful completion of two phases, he said that the provincial government had given approval of the third phase of archeological voyage to different parts of the province. He said that the caravan would depart very shortly for Swat to explore archeological heritage in the valley. It would be first step of the government to promote archeological tourism in Swat following returning of normalcy and peace, he maintained.After approval of third phase of Heritage Caravan, Provincial Minister for Archeology, Sports and Tourism, Syed Aqil Shah lauded the efforts of head and organizers of the caravan for making successful the archeological tourism promotion expedition. He said said that the government was being making allout efforts to promote archeological tourism and preserve historic sites in the province.Shagufta Malik, woman legislator and Chairman Khyber Pakhtunkwa Assembly standing committee on Culture, said that the campaign has become more fruitful to sensitize general masses about historic archeological heritage and rich cultural values of the province. “We have prioritized archeological promotion under the long-term strategy in the province,” she reiterated. Azam Khan, Managing Director Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Secretary Culture said that it was the top most priority of the government to preserve and promote our archeological tourism through such steps. “We are doing our efforts to revive the tourism again after normalizing security situation because the insurgency and militancy have damaged the tourism very badly,” Azam added.