Five children die of starvation in Kohistan

ABBOTABAD: At least five children died of starvation in a village in the flood-battered Kohistan district of Hazara division, a local lawmaker reportedly said on Sunday.

Speaking to journalists in Bisham, MPA Abdul Sattar Khan said that the mountainous Kohistan district of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province has been cut off from the rest of the country since surging floodwaters destroyed vital infrastructure, including roads and bridges, in the area two weeks ago.

“‘We are facing a very serious food crisis in the district. Five children have already died and many more people would starve to death if they don’t get food in the next two days,” Khan was quoted by a local newspaper as telling journalists.

The lawmaker claimed that he somehow managed to reach Bisham to send out an SOS because the telecommunication system has collapsed in Kohistan. He came down hard on the government for “ignoring the people affected by  floods in the region”. He said that no government aid has reached upper Kohistan, which has been cut off from the rest of the country.

Khan called upon the government to immediately provide aid to hundreds of families stranded in upper Kohistan to avert a human catastrophe.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2010.