PESHAWAR: Authorities have rescued nearly 250 tourists who were stranded in Kumrat Valley after flash floods triggered by heavy rains washed away roads and bridges in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, official said on Saturday.
Kumrat Valley is a popular tourist destination in the Upper Dir district of KP which has reported 88 deaths in rain-related incidents since July 1, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
The main road leading to Kumrat Valley had been washed away at Barikot, cutting it off from the rest of the province, while three bridges connecting Makrala and Thal areas were also swept away by floods.
Hundreds of tourists were left stranded in various parts of Kumrat Valley due to the floods who have all been evacuated to safety, according to KP Tourism Authority spokesman Saad bin Awais.
“Of them, 250 have been rescued who have left for their homes, while the rest have been shifted to hotels where they are being provided with free services,” he told Arab News. “All of the tourists were Pakistanis.”
Kumrat Valley is widely popular among local and foreign tourists because of its snow-clad mountains, green pastures and dense forests, according to the official. A total of 2,604,312 tourists, including 533 foreigners, visited the valley from September 2023 to August 2024.
Pakistan’s tourism industry generated $2.5 billion of revenue in 2022 and the figure was expected to go up to $4 billion in the next four years, according to the Pakistan Tourism Department Corporation (PTDC).
Bilal Faizi, a Rescue 1122 spokesperson, said two rescue teams had been dispatched to Kumrat and Barikot areas to rescue the tourists stuck in the region.
“We have also set up a medical camp in Barikot and are providing aid to the injured and sick,” he said, adding that four passenger buses had been sent in to the Upper Dir to transport the tourists to their respective areas.
Awais said continuous downpours, followed by floods, severely hampered rescue operations, saying that local residents, Rescue 1122, police and civil defense personnel were making all-out efforts to reopen the roads.
“The roads closed due to landslides will take almost two days to reopen,” he shared. “Heavy machinery is also being used to remove obstacles from roads in Kumrat Valley, but incessant rains are hampering the efforts.”
A day before, a mudslide triggered by heavy monsoon rain hit a house in Upper Dir, killing 12 people of a family, according to authorities.
Authorities rescue 250 tourists after floods wash away roads leading to Pakistan’s Kumrat Valley
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Authorities rescue 250 tourists after floods wash away roads leading to Pakistan’s Kumrat Valley
- Pakistan is currently receiving heavy monsoon showers which have triggered flash floods in several parts of the South Asian country
- Kumrat Valley is a popular tourist destination in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which has reported 88 rain-related deaths since July 1
Karachi mayor says city focused on rescue, identification after mall fire kills 67
- Blaze broke out on Jan. 17 at Gul Plaza, trapping workers and shoppers inside and burning for more than 24 hours
- Authorities say identification has been significantly slowed by the condition of the bodies recovered from the site
ISLAMABAD: Authorities in Karachi are focused on ongoing rescue operations and the identification of victims and handover of remains to families, the city’s mayor said on Friday, after a deadly fire at a shopping plaza killed at least 67 people this month.
The blaze broke out on Jan. 17 at Gul Plaza, a densely packed commercial building in the heart of the city, trapping workers and shoppers inside and burning for more than 24 hours before being brought under control. Recovery operations are still underway as teams sift through unstable debris at the site.
Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab said in a statement the city administration remained focused on retrieving remains and returning them to families as quickly as possible. His remarks came after he visited the homes of several victims, according to a statement from his office.
“Rescue personnel of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation are still engaged in the rescue operation, while the administration is making every effort to hand over [remains] of the victims, loved ones to their families at the earliest,” Wahab was quoted as saying.
Identification has been complicated by the condition of the remains, Karachi Police Surgeon Dr. Summaiya Syed told reporters.
Most of the bodies recovered so far were discovered in fragments, she said, making forensic identification extremely difficult and prolonging the process for families waiting for confirmation.
Relatives of more than a dozen missing persons have remained near the destroyed plaza and at hospitals even after submitting DNA samples for testing. Some families have voiced frustration over the pace of recovery and identification efforts.
Wahab said the provincial government stood with affected families and had committed to long-term support.
“The Sindh government would also not sit back until the victims are fully rehabilitated and that all possible support would be provided [to them],” he said.
Authorities have yet to determine the cause of the fire. Police have said preliminary indications point to a possible electrical short circuit in the plaza which houses over 1,200 shops, though officials stress that conclusions will only be drawn after investigations are completed.
Deadly fires are a recurring problem in Karachi, a city of more than 20 million people, where overcrowded markets, aging infrastructure, illegal construction and weak enforcement of safety regulations frequently contribute to disasters.
Officials say a blaze of this scale is rare.
The Sindh government has announced compensation of Rs10 million ($35,720) for each person killed in the fire and said all affected shopkeepers would also be compensated.
