ISLAMABAD: At least 105 people have been killed and 96 injured by avalanches, landslides and other extreme weather-related incidents, mainly in Azad Kashmir, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) confirmed on Friday.
The number of destroyed houses has risen to nearly 1,300 as rescue efforts continue and more reports are arriving.
Rescue workers clear a snow-covered road to make way for an ambulance to reach the areas affected by heavy snowfall and avalanches, in Neelum Valley near line of control (LoC) in Pakistan on Jan. 14, 2020. (REUTERS)
The majority of casualties have been reported in Azad Kashmir, where heavy rains and snowfall triggered avalanches, especially in the Neelum Valley area.
The avalanches and other rain-related incidents have killed 78 people, NDMA spokesman Saqib Mumtaz, told Arab News on Thursday evening. Fifty-six people were injured in the region.
“Food and non-food relief items including tents, blankets, first aid kits, tarpaulins, kitchen accessories, plastic mats and mattresses were distributed in the affected areas of district Neelum Valley,” the NDMA said in an earlier statement.
A man removes snow from outside his house after heavy snowfall, in Keran, a small town in Neelum Valley, in Azad Kashmir on Jan. 14, 2020. (AP)
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday visited Muzaffarabad, the capital city of Azad Kashmir, to review the ground situation and see the injured at a military hospital in Muzaffarabad.
In Balochistan, local government spokesman Liaquat Shahwani said that 20 people were killed in various extreme weather-related incidents in the province. “The situation is under control and all stranded people have been rescued,” he said. According to NDMA, another 23 people were wounded.
Rescue and relief efforts are underway on Jan. 15. (Photo courtesy: ISPR)
Five people died and 13 were injured in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while two people died and four were injured in Gilgit-Baltistan, according to the NDMA’s data from Friday.
Government authorities are working to clear the roads in the affected areas. In Balochistan, all are already open for traffic.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has warned that heavy rains and snow in northwestern parts of Balochistan may result in flash floods. The province has recorded the heaviest snowfall in two decades, according to the PMD.
Local residents carry water pots above their heads as they walk back to their homes after heavy snowfall in Khanozai area some 75 kms in northeast of the provincial capital Quetta on Jan. 14, 2020. (AFP)
A westerly wave has also engulfed the upper parts of the country, the PMD said in a statement on Tuesday, forecasting cold and dry weather in most parts of Pakistan and extremely frigid climate in north Balochistan.
Floods in Balochistan have reportedly affected the freight train service between Pakistan and Iran.
