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  • Feb 13th, 2005
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As many as 46 people were killed as avalanches hit a village and houses in Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) on Saturday, officials said. Thirty-three people including 20 women were killed when a snow avalanche buried several houses in the remote Mayyatan Wali Seri village in upper Neelum valley early Saturday, senior superintendent police Tahir Mahmood Qureshi told.

"Several houses were completely destroyed, burying 20 women and children and 13 men alive," he said.

The nearby deployed army soldiers and villagers rushed to the affected area and rescued four injured from the avalanche, Qureshi told.

The exact loss of life could not be ascertained as upper part of the remote valley was cut off from the rest of the area following heavy snowfall and torrential rains.

Six more people were killed in Khawaja Seri Lowat while two others in Janawai area by burring under avalanches which hit their houses in upper Neelum valley midnight Friday owing to heavy rain and worst snowfall in the area.

Five members of a family died when their house was hit by an avalanche in south-eastern Leepa valley overnight, police said.

The dead included a couple and their two daughters while a girl rescued unhurt. Upper areas of Neelum and Leepa valleys have received more than seven feet snow.

Two army soldiers were also killed by an avalanche, also in Leepa valley, on Thursday. Several houses were partly damaged and telecommunication suspended in several parts of AJK due heavy rain and snowfall.

REUTERS ADDS: Relief operation was launched for 20,000 people stricken by torrential rains in the south-west, as floods and avalanches killed over 260 nation-wide so far, officials said on Saturday.

Authorities rushed in thousands of troops to help rescue efforts in Balochistan. Local government spokesman Razak Bugti said 500 people were missing after a dam burst late Thursday following the worst deluge in 16 years.

Newspapers reported officials saying thousands of families in Balochistan had lost their homes, crops and livestock.

Villages near the coastal town of Pasni bore the brunt of the destruction when waters breached the Shadikor dam, sweeping away people and houses. Provincial minister Sher Jan Baloch said the death toll from the disaster had risen to 71.

More than 40 people have been killed in other rain-affected parts of the province.

President Pervez Musharraf said he was going to visit the area to personally take charge.

"I will oversee relief operations. A C-130 plane is standing before me," the President told a private TV channel from Gwadar airport.

Officials said at least five villages, home to around 7,000 people, had been submerged by waters pouring from the ruptured dam, a 35-metre (115-feet) high embankment 300 meters (985 feet) long constructed just two years ago.

Four thousand people living near the Akra Caur Dam supplying water to nearby Gwadar port had also been evacuated as water levels passed danger limits, officials said.

"People have taken shelter on nearby high ground and helicopters are lifting them from there," said Bashir Baloch, a resident of Gwadar, describing the situation in Suntsar, a small town between Pasni and Gwadar.

Parts of Pasni were under a meter (3 feet) of water, and tents had been put up on higher ground for displaced families.

"The people who have taken shelter on their rooftops have been picked up and provided shelter in the government buildings," said an official at Balochistan's Crisis Control Cell.

Officials say 6,000 army, paramilitary and navy troops have been mobilised.

Military transport planes and trucks were ferrying in food, blankets, tents and other emergency supplies, while helicopters flew over flooded areas as several bridges along the main coastal highway had been washed away.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005


Copyright Reuters, 2005


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