16 dead in rain-related incidents across country

ISLAMABAD: More than 16 people, including women and children, died while dozens of others were injured in separate incidents of roof collapse and other mishaps related to rains in different areas of the country on Sunday.
Eleven people, including six women and three children, died in rain-related incidents in various parts of the Karak district.
In the first incident, four people, including two women and two children, were killed in the Karak city after a building collapsed. In the second incident, two women and two men died in the Kandokhel area of Karak when the roof of a room caved in.
Rehmat Ali, a resident of Mangerkhel, died in another roof collapse incident while two women died in a similar incident in the Aral Banda area.
Many low-lying areas, including Tabbikhwa, Jatan Banda, Isak Chountra, Ghol Banda, Dareshkhel and Hamidan, were submerged and floodwater entered houses. People have now started shifting to safer places.
Meanwhile, Kurd Sharif, Kurd Payan, Showanki Deta Mines and other localities have been cut off from the rest of the district as the main road has been washed away by the floodwater and dwellers have got stranded.
A former Nazim of union council Palosa Sar, Ikhtiar Rehman, told The News by phone that people were waiting for relief as there was a shortage of food items and drinking water in the area. He demanded the district government to help the people.
Heavy rains continued to lash various areas of the country, flooding the rivers, Nullahs and inundating low-lying areas. It resulted in closure of roads, disconnecting far-flung areas with the main towns due to landslides, destroying crops and agricultural lands, rendering millions of rupee losses to the general public and government.
Rescue sources said that roof of a dilapidated mud house located near the Old Sabzi Mandi in Pakpattan suddenly came down, resulting in the death of three, including a mother and her two sons while the father and daughter were left critically injured.
In the Nand Singh area of Mian Channu, the roof of a house collapsed due to heavy rain resulting in the death of a father and a daughter while two others were injured in the incident.
A child died and three others were wounded in a roof collapse incident in the Rukanabad area of Dera Ghazi Khan.
About two dozen people, including women and children, were injured in incidents of roof collapse and road mishaps due to heavy downpour in Sialkot, Bhakkar, Mianwali, Sargodha, Shikarpur, Abbottabad, Haripur, Skardu and other cities across the country. The injured of all incidents were shifted to different hospitals of respective areas where condition of several wounded people was stated to be serious and it was feared that the death toll could rise further.
Heavy rain flooded the rivers and Nullahs inundating the low-lying areas in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Water entered houses destroying household items and creating problems for the residents. The land route between Dera Ghazi Khan and Balochistan was blocked due to landslides near Fort Munro.
Meanwhile, in its ongoing rescue and flood relief operation, the Pakistan Army evacuated over 15,000 flood-affected people in Layyah and surrounding areas.
According to the ISPR, food packages were distributed among the flood-hit people while 3,250 patients had been treated at the army medical camp so far.
In Sadiqabad and Rahim Yar Khan, over 52,000 people and 101,000 livestock had been evacuated to safer places.
Up to 4,300 patients had been treated at the army medical camp in Chachran Sharif and food packages had been distributed among the flood-affected people.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Navy (PN) rescue teams evacuated 655 residents from different villages of Khairpur during the relief operation.
According to the press release, 135 residents were evacuated from Ghotki, 355 from Pano Aqil and 815 from Rani Pur and Gambat in the last 24 hours. Bodies of two men drowned in the Dadu Canal, Larkana, had also been recovered by the PN teams. It was reported that another consignment of six tons of relief goods by the Pakistan Navy had also been dispatched to Khairpur from Karachi and a tent city was also being established at Khairpur by the Pakistan Navy for the flood-affected people.