Deadly Monsoon Rains Devastate Northern Pakistan, Dozens Killed
Deadly monsoon rains in Pakistan killed at least 110 people. Flash floods and landslides continue to devastate the country's northern regions, Dawn reported.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Catastrophic monsoon rains have claimed the lives of at least 110 people and injured 14 more across Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the region's disaster management authority reported Friday, as flash floods and landslides continue to ravage the country's northern areas.
The latest casualties contribute to a devastating nationwide death toll that has climbed to more than 370 since the monsoon season began in late June.
According to a daily situation report from the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) cited by Pakistan’s Dawn news website, the recent deluge has wrought havoc across several districts in the province.
The most severely impacted area was Bajaur district, where flash floods triggered by a cloudburst resulted in 18 deaths and eight injuries. Rescue 1122 spokesperson Bilal Ahmad Faizi told Dawn.com that emergency personnel, aided by local residents, had recovered 16 bodies and rescued three injured individuals from the debris and floodwaters in Salarzai tehsil’s Jabrarai village.
A search and rescue operation, supervised by Bajaur District Emergency Officer Amjad Khan, was reportedly underway for seven people who remained missing.
The district of Battagram also suffered immense loss, with at least 15 fatalities reported.
According to the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Saleem Khan confirmed that five houses were destroyed by a lightning strike in the Neel Band area, a village located on the border with Mansehra district.
"So far, 10 bodies have been recovered from the stream at the Shimlai Mandrawali location, while rescue teams from Rescue 1122, police, and local volunteers are engaged in ongoing relief and search operations," the APP report stated.
A statement from Battagram's Rescue 1122, cited by Dawn, noted that these efforts were severely hampered by intermittent rain and a near-total loss of mobile network coverage, which has heavily impacted communication.
In Lower Dir district, five people were killed and four were injured when heavy rains caused the roof of a house to collapse in Suri Pao village.
The rescue official, Bilal Ahmad Faizi, detailed the immense challenges faced by emergency responders, telling Dawn.com that the team "reached the scene after walking for three hours despite heavy rain, flooded rails, difficult and bad roads.” The PDMA report also recorded four deaths in Swat and one casualty with two injuries in Shangla.
The ongoing natural disaster extends beyond Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Dawn report noted that on the previous day, more than a dozen people were killed in other northern parts of the country.
In Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), a massive landslide buried a home in Sarli Sacha village, leaving six family members feared dead, while two other women lost their lives in separate rain-related incidents in AJK's Bagh and Sudhnoti districts.
In the Gilgit-Baltistan region, flash floods killed at least eight people and left two missing in the Ghizer district, devastating several villages.
The heavy downpours have also caused severe infrastructure damage and traffic disruptions in other areas, including Abbottabad district. The latest data from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) shows that of the 325 people killed nationwide since June 26, 142 were children.
Updated at 01:42 PM on August 15: the death toll rose to 110 according to an AFP news report.
