View of damages due to heavy downpour at Khan Mast Colony in Peshawar. PHOTO: PPI
At least 36 people have died over the past 72 hours in a spell of torrential rain in the north and north-western parts of Pakistan.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecast more rains accompanied by strong gusty winds in Kashmir, Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa for the next 24 hours.
On Sunday, nine deaths in rain-related accidents and dozens of injuries were reported from across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Eight bodies were pulled out of a coalmine in Orakzai Agency which had caved in a day earlier after heavy rainfall.
In Rawalpindi, three members of an Afghan refugee family, including two minors, were killed after the roof of their mud house collapsed.
A six-year-old girl also drowned in a flooded storm water drain as rains continued to lash Rawalpindi for the third successive day on Sunday.
Kashmir bus service
Intermittent rains and landslides forced the suspension of the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service for at least one week. The Jehlum Valley Road connecting Muzaffarabad with Srinagar via the Line of Control (LoC) has been blocked by a land slide due to rainfall.
Mine collapse
In Orakzai, rescue efforts continued for the second day to retrieve coalmine workers trapped under rubble since Saturday. The mine collapsed after an explosion caused by accumulated gas accompanied with heavy rainfall.
Rescue workers, military forces and political administration have do far recovered eight bodies from the 3,000-foot deep Al-Hussaini coalmine.
Lower Orakzai Agency Assistant Political Agent Azizullah Jan said 38 workers had been rescued while four were still missing.
Deaths across K-P
At least seven people died in the tribal areas in weather-related accidents on Saturday while nine more deaths were reported in K-P on Sunday.
In Bakakhel, Bannu, two boys died after the roof of their house collapsed.
A woman died while five more people were injured in Mardan. A ‘rain emergency’ has been declared in the district where at least eight buildings have collapsed, according to Rescue 1122.
In Malakand, 70-year-old man died when the roof of his house collapsed in Galoshah-Sakhakot. Locals said around 15 houses were damaged by the rainfall. A two-year-old boy died in the Mamond area of Bajaur Agency while two girls were reported dead in Khar. From the frontier regions, two deaths were reported from Bannu.
Snowfall
The downpour followed by snowfall also affected life in the northern areas. Chitral plunged into darkness after the national grid was disconnected due to heavy snowfall in Kalash, Shah Salim and Lowari Top. Heavy snowfall has also forced the closure of roads towards Malam Jabba.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 14th, 2016.
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