Rain, floods continue to wreak havoc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

JAMRUD/ MANSEHRA: Three persons were killed as rain and floods continue to wreak havoc in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday.

One Asad Wali drowned in the flood water in Mulaguri village in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber district. The second incident happened in Ali Masjid area of Jamrud where the roof of the house of Laiq Shah Shinwari collapsed due to heavy rain. One of his sons died in the incident and his daughter and another son sustained injuries.

The flood water also inundated crops and property in the tehsil.

A woman was killed and a child sustained injuries when the roof of a house collapsed in Bara tehsil of Khyber tribal district.

The sources said one of the rooms of Khial Din’s house collapsed in the Akakhel area due to heavy rain. As a result, a woman, stated to be the wife of Ilyas Khan, was killed and a child identified as Adnan Khan sustained injuries.

In Mansehra, a large number of tourists and passengers travelling between the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan were stranded after a bridge built at the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road washed away by the flash floods in the Battal area of Kaghan valley.

“We have moved the National Highway Authority’s machinery to create a temporary ramp at the site where the bridge washed away in flash floods,” Deputy Commissioner Adnan Khan Bhittani told reporters.

The flood water in the Kunhar River swept away the bridge and eroded a portion of the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road, suspending the traffic between the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The district administration of Chilas in GB had already diverted the traffic from Karakoram Highway to Kaghan valley after the temporary ramp made in the Ichar Nullah area of Upper Kohistan had been swept away by flash floods on Monday.

“Continued rains have been hampering the Rescue and rehabilitation activities launched following the incident but I am optimistic to retrieve tourists and passengers stranded in the valley,” Bhittani said.

The eyewitness told reporters through telephone from the Kaghan valley that long queues of vehicles could be witnessed at MNJ road in the landslides and flash flood hit area and passengers and tourists were stranded on both sides of the road.

Reports said the floods also destroyed crops and roads and bridges in lower as well as Upper Chitral.