23 killed as rains wreak havoc in KP, Punjab

KOHAT/ CHITRAL/ MANSEHRA: At least 18 people were killed while houses, bridges and roads were washed away as monsoon rain-triggered floods wreaked havoc in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday. Also, five people died as heavy rain lashed Punjab cities.

Eleven people died after floodwater entered the basement of a house in Darra Adamkhel in Kohat district. Police officials said the floodwater entered the basement of a house of Amjad, 55, when all his family members were asleep in the remote Bazikhel area in Dara Adamkhel.

The basement filled with rainwater quickly, leaving all the family members dead.

The victims were identified as Amjad, Rehama, 78, Uzma, 28, Waseem, 35, Uzain, 15, Nayab, 17, Onais, 8, Hamdan, 7, Maliha, 5, Abeera, 2, and an 11-month-old baby girl, whose name could not be ascertained. Rescue 1122 and disaster teams rushed to the spot and retrieved the bodies from the flooded basement.

In Bajaur, a woman and her daughter were killed when the house of Maroof Khan collapsed due to heavy rain in the Wara Kharkay area in Mamond tehsil.

Local residents said that the overnight torrential rain had weakened the mud-thatched house, which caved in and buried all the inmates under the debris alive. The wife of Maroof Khan and his daughter were killed.

Also, the heavy rains and subsequent flooding lashed various parts of the district, including Kharkay, Hazarnao, Shago, Sewai, Kaga, and others, damaging a number of houses and crops, vegetable and fruit orchards.

Two persons were killed, houses, roads and bridges were swept away by floods in various villages in upper and lower Chitral districts. Officials said that one person was killed by flood in Upper Chitral while one Shajehan drowned in a stream in Mirkhani area in Lower Chitral.

“At least 20 houses were washed away by floods in Golen, Koghuzi and Prayet villages in Lower Chitral,” officials said, adding, several houses were also destroyed by floods in Reshun, Brep, Dezg and Khrozg villages in Yarkhun valley in Upper Chitral.

The Chitral-Shandur Road had been blocked in various places due to floods and river erosion. The river has swept away the vital road in Reshun, disconnecting the upper Chitral with other parts of the country.

A woman and her son were swept away in torrents and thousands of tourists were stranded in Kaghan Valley in Mansehra district. The central bridge was also washed away at Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road in the Mahandri area of the valley.

The situation had gone out of the district administration’s control in Kaghan, and its neighbouring Manor valleys as the Kunhar River and a local stream swelled to high level, inundating Mahandri Bazaar and washing away many houses, shops, three vehicles and the central bridge at Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road.

The floodwater surrounded Mahandri bazaar and water entered in shops, causing huge financial losses.

The wife of Abdul Rehman and his 14-year-old son were washed away in Manor stream and the search for bodies, according to Kaghan Police, couldn’t be started because of flooding in the tributary.

Thousands of tourists, mostly women and children from across the country, remained stranded following flash floods in both Kaghan and Manor valleys.

“We have decided to provide free room service and night stay to the stranded tourists,” Seth Matiullah, the president of hoteliers association in Kaghan Valley, told reporters in Naran.

District Police Officer Shafiullah Khan Gandapur also talked to the media and said that the police were deployed at Karakoram Highway, Hazara Expressway and Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road to restrict entry of visitors into the Kaghan Valley.

In Haripur, a man died and another one was critically injured when the roof of their house collapsed in the limits of village council Baka, police officials said. The cause of the incident was torrential rains.

Police officials and area people said that two Afghan nationals were sleeping in one of the rooms of their mud-built house in Jabi Baka village when the roof caved in during early hours of Tuesday, burying both of them under the debris. The area people launched a rescue operation and recovered both and shifted them to trauma centre where doctors pronounced one of them later identified as Khan Gul, 35, dead while his cousin Ayub was admitted for treatment.

Police and area people said that the house was in dilapidated condition and the rain caused further damage.

Meanwhile, the monsoon rains affected the electricity supply as 245 power feeders tripped in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A spokesman for the Peshawar Electric Supply Company said 83 feeders tripped in Peshawar, 64 in Khyber, 21 in Mardan, 20 in Swabi, 21 in Abbottabad, 29 in Swat and eight in Mansehra.

In Punjab, heavy rain lashed cities, killing five people. Two women lost their lives and three others sustained injuries when the roof of a godown collapsed in Millat Town, Faisalabad, on Tuesday. Rescue-1122 reported the incident occurred when several women were present in a godown in Ghokhowal Main Bazaar, Muraqba Hall, Millat Road. The accumulated rainwater on the roof caused it to collapse, resulting in the deaths of Cathreen Bibi (75) and Parveen Akhtar (65), both residents of Ghaziabad, Millat Road. The injured, Azra Bibi, Khalida Bibi and Zareena Kosar, were also residents of the same area and were shifted to DHQ hospital for treatment.

Meanwhile, a 12-year-old boy drowned in rainwater in a park in Green Town. According to Rescue 1122, Abdullah, a resident of Usman Town, Faisalabad, was swimming in the rainwater accumulated in the park when he ventured into a deeper section and drowned. The Rescue 1122 teams arrived late at the scene, prompting the local community to initiate their own search for the boy. His body was eventually found and handed over to his family. The local residents staged a protest against the Wasa and PHA for their failure to drain the water.

A 26-year-old man drowned while attempting to cross a storm drain near Kharian Road Vegetable Market at Jalalpur Jattan, Lalamusa. Reham Sher, son of Ayatollah Khan, was trying to cross the overflowing drain when he drowned. The rain had caused the drain to overflow. The Rescue 1122 divers were dispatched and launched an extensive search operation. After several hours of effort, the divers recovered the body.

Heavy rainfall that persisted throughout the night between Monday and Tuesday disrupted normal life in Bahawalpur city. The city experienced light rain on Monday afternoon, followed by intense showers in the evening. The intermittent rain continued for most of the night, leading to a drop in temperature and a chilly atmosphere. The rainwater inundated houses and shops in downtown areas, affecting traffic on main city roads. Teams from Bahawalpur Municipal Corporation, Bahawalpur District Council, and Bahawalpur Waste Management Company were deployed to drain the water from Circular Road, Fareed Gate, and Bus Terminal.

A boy was electrocuted at Islampura, Toba Tek Singh, on Tuesday. The Rescue 1122 said that Azizur Rehman, 16, was going to switch on an electric water pump during rain when his hand touched a live wire. He received an electric shock and died on the spot.