Six people, including two engineers, buried under rock. PHOTO:FILE
GILGIT/ PESHAWAR:
Heavy winter downpours added to the cold wave sweeping central Pakistan and triggered avalanches in the north on Monday, burying and stranding dozens of people.
Six people – among them two engineers of a foreign construction company – were buried when an avalanches hit Upper Dir district on Monday.
Two engineers of a Korean construction firm and their guard were buried under tons of snow when an avalanche hit their camp in Lowari Tunnel in the early hours of Monday, a security official said. Other staffers of the company rushed to the Sambo camp on time and rescued the trapped people.
Later in the afternoon, an avalanche hit a security check post near the Pak-Afghan border in the Bin Shahi area of neighbouring Upper Dir district. “Three security personnel were buried under tons of snow,” the official said and identified the trapped soldiers as Nizam, Arif and Allah Bakhsh – all from the 33 Baloch Unit of Pakistan Army. A rescue operation is ongoing at the site.
Shangla and Swat districts witnessed the heaviest snowfall in 10 years, which disrupted communication and mobility.
“We have vacated our houses and shifted to safer areas amid fears of landslides. The jeep rally which was to be held today (Monday) has also been postponed,” Nazir, a resident of Kalaam bazaar, told The Express Tribune.
In Gilgit-Baltistan, a boat with 40 people onboard was stranded in the middle of the artificial Attabad Lake on Monday. The lake, which was formed as a result of a massive avalanche in January 2010, has been frozen by the freezing cold.
The stranded people – including women and children – were rescued after three hours of struggle, local sources told The Express Tribune.
All 40 people belonged to one family from Passu village in Gojal tehsil of Hunza-Nagar district. They were returning from Gilgit after attending a funeral. Residents of the nearby Shishkat village smashed the ice to reach the stranded people, according to a local journalist.
In Haripur district, five members of a family were swept away by flash floods triggered by heavy rain on Monday. Police and rescuers have launched a search operation for the missing individuals.
A woman was killed and two others were injured when the roof of a house collapsed due to heavy rain in the southern Karak district on Sunday night. Police said the family were asleep in their house in the Teri area when the roof caved in. All family members were trapped under the debris and died before rescuers could reach them.
The rain added to the cold wave in Lahore, where 2 millimeters rain was recorded with strong winds. Weather experts said the rain spell was likely to continue until Tuesday night. Minimum temperature was recorded at 8.5 degrees Celsius.
In Karachi, the temperature dropped to 14 degrees Celsius on Monday evening from 17.5 Celsius a day earlier after a weather system caused light showers across the province, the meteorological office said. (With additional reporting by our correspondents in Karachi and Lahore)
Published in The Express Tribune, February 5th, 2013.
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It could have been worse, if the kink in polar jet stream responsible for this sever weather had coincided with the summer monsoon as it had during July 2010 resulting in devastating floods. Then the jet stream's shift towards the south had brought hot weather in western Russia and torrential rains in Pakistan. I wonder what sort of weather the Russians are having this time round.