13 killed as rain wreaks havoc in KP's Torghar area

MANSEHRA: Thirteen people, including 10 members of a family, were killed and another two suffered critical injuries when two houses collapsed after a cloudburst in a remote village of Torghar district in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

“Thirteen people, most of them women and children, have been killed in a tragedy that occurred in a remote part of the district,” Mohammad Fawad, Torghar Deputy Commissioner, told reporters.

The downpour, which started lashing the area on Saturday night, wreaked havoc in the Torghar district as the main Darband-Thakot and many links roads connecting scores of the villages with the Judbah got blocked following heavy landslides.

Mohammad Sheeraz’s house which was situated at a stream’s bank in Gatka Imlok Bahri village, collapsed and their bodies were swept away in the flood water triggered by the cloudburst.

The locals rushed to the spot and started digging the debris of the collapsed houses and retrieved five bodies.

Five other bodies were later on taken out from the stream by locals at different places.

Those killed in the incident were identified as Mohammad Sheeraz, 35; Shernawaz, 17; Guldeena Bibi, 31; Alfsaid Bibi, 30; Bukhatnaz Waz Khan, 13; Bukht Raz Mini, 11; Rohina Bibi, 5; Aysha Bibi, 8; Umara Bibi, 3; Noor Khayma Said Bibi, 71; Bukhat Roaza Bibi, 45; Hasnain, 4; and Gul Khattab, 28.

Asia Bibi and Mohammad Anwar were injured and taken to a nearby hospital.

The cattle pens of Mohammad Sheeraz also collapsed in the heavy rains and dozens of animals perished.

The house of one Mohammad Niaz, stated to be brother of Mohammad Sheeraz, also collapsed in the tragic incident and his wife Bukhat Roza Bibi, 43, and his son Husnain, 4, were killed.

The locals complained of the government’s apathy as according to them none of government official rushed to the scene following the tragic incident and they retrieved bodies of the victims on self-help basis.

Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Fawad and Assistant Commissioner Azhar Zahoor, who reached the place of the incident later in the day, said that excavators and shovel machines had been moved to the affected village after reopening the road leading to the area.

He said that Rs300,000 as compensation amount would be paid for each victim by the district administration under the National Disaster Management Authority Act, 2017, within a couple of days.

“The injured would also be compensated by the administration after considering the nature of their injuries and treatment,” said Mr Fawad.

In Abbottabad, a house partially collapsed when a mudslide detached from a nearby mountain and fell on the house as a result of which a woman and a young boy were killed and four others were injured.

The Rescue 1122 team rushed to the area soon after receiving the information and retrieved four people, a man, his wife and two sons alive from the rubble while bodies of two others were pulled out after hectic efforts of several hours.

The Rescue 1122 district emergency officer Imran Khan Yusufzai led the six-hour-long operation in which 30 officials took part.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2021

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