Two die in rain-related incidents

Two children were killed and three other injured in torrential rains in Bajaur tribal district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) on Friday.

An official of the district administration told The Express Tribune that two girls, both sisters, were killed in a roof collapse incident in Meena village, War Mamond.

“Around mid night the roof of a room collapsed in Noor Muhammad’s house in which two of his daughters Amina, 12 and Halima, 7 were trapped under the debris,” he said, adding the roof caved in under the pressure of heavy downpour.

He said that the downpour not only destroyed standing crops but also left the low lying areas completely inundated.

In a separate incident in Salarzai tehsil three children were injured in a wall collapse. All of the kids are from one family who were rushed to the nearby hospital where their condition is stated to be critical.

Deputy Commissioner has ordered a complete survey of the losses and directed AC to visit the houses of the victims and provide them with relief goods.

He said that compensation will be paid to the families and their injured would be also treated free of cost.

Chitral Upper and Lower districts also received heavy rainfall on the mountains which resulted in high flooding in all the streams and nullahs on Friday.

Local residents said that the floods left all the canals and irrigation channel in the district destroyed.

“Flash floods were seen in Chitral bazaar and other surrounding areas. Due to floods people were unable to fetch potable water from the streams causing a severe shortage of drinking water,” they said.

They demanded of the government to take action and construct protective embankments around main rivers in order to prevent flooding in villages and population centres.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2022.