KABUL: At least 10 people were killed and hundreds of homes destroyed in a remote area of northeastern Afghanistan after melting snow triggered a landslide, officials said Thursday.
A mountain lake in Panjshir, a province north of Kabul known for its snowcapped peaks, overflowed and sent water and mud cascading over Peshghor village, Omar Mohammadi, spokesman for the disaster management ministry, told AFP.
Jamil Ahmad was lying in bed just before midnight when he said he heard a sound like “jets” flying overhead.
“Somebody shouted ‘Flood!’ and I ran away with my family to higher ground,” Ahmad told AFP by telephone.
“The people started firing (weapons) into the air to warn others about the flood.”
The water and mud had inundated most of the houses in the village, and destroyed a religious school, two mosques and the main market, Ahmad said.
“Three women from my neighborhood and two laborers who didn’t hear the warning were taken away by the flood,” Ahmad said.
Villagers had been worried about the possibility of landslides after several days of increasingly warm weather, Ahmad said.
Most survivors were staying on higher ground for fear of more, he added.
Photos posted on social media purportedly showed houses and farmland covered in water and mud after the Panjshir River broke its banks.
Villagers using shovels and other tools were desperately searching for survivors in the debris as rescue teams were deployed to the area, Mohammadi said.
“We have deployed everything at hand to help the people,” he said. “Some people are missing.”
Disasters such as avalanches and flash floods often hit in mountainous areas of Afghanistan as snow melts in the spring and summer. It is made worse by deforestation.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who is in Brussels for the NATO summit, said he was “deeply saddened” by the latest natural disaster.
“A number of people have lost their lives” in the landslide, Ghani said in a statement.
He ordered “relevant authorities to provide urgent assistance to the affected people.”
The landslide comes as the country is in the grip of a nearly 17-year war between Afghan security forces and the Taliban.
10 dead, hundreds of houses destroyed in Afghan landslide
10 dead, hundreds of houses destroyed in Afghan landslide
- At least 10 people killed, hundreds of homes destroyed in Afghanistan after melting snow triggers landslide
- A mountain lake overflowed and sent water and mud cascading over Peshghor village
Afghan Taliban says Pakistan bombs Kabul in fresh escalation
KABUL: The Afghan government said on Friday that Pakistan had carried out fresh strikes on Kabul and several other provinces.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on X that Kabul, Kandahar, Paktia, Paktika, and some other areas, were targeted.
Pakistan has killed at least 641 Afghan Taliban operatives and injured more than 855 in the ongoing conflict between the two sides since last month, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Wednesday.
Islamabad has said its airstrikes, which have at times directly targeted the Afghan Taliban government, are aimed at ending Kabul’s support for militants carrying out attacks on Pakistan. The Taliban has denied aiding militant groups.
Fresh clashes between the two neighbors began on Feb. 26 after Afghanistan’s border forces launched attacks against Pakistani military installations. Kabul said the attack was in retaliation for Islamabad’s airstrikes earlier in February. Both forces have since then engaged in the worst fighting between them in decades.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have remained strained since the Afghan Taliban seized power in August 2021. Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks across the country in recent months that it blames on militants it alleges are based in Afghanistan. Kabul denies the allegations and insists that its soil is not used by militant groups for attacks against other countries.
While Afghanistan has voiced the desire for dialogue, Pakistan has repeatedly ruled out talks, saying it will continue targeting militant hideouts through “Operation Ghazab lil Haq” until Kabul desists from supporting militants.
