20 dead as rain torrents trigger landslides, roof collapses in KP, AJK

• In Lower Dir’s Timergara area, five members of a family were killed and two others wounded when the roof of their house caved in

Landslides and roof-collapse incidents triggered by intermittent torrential rains have claimed at least 20 lives in parts of Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials and rescuers said on Saturday.

In Lower Dir’s Timergara area, five members of a family were killed and two others wounded when the roof of their house caved in. The injured were shifted to a local hospital for treatment.

In another roof-collapse incident in Datta Khel area of North Waziristan Agency, seven people, five children and two women, were killed.

In Bagh district’s Ochara village, landslide claimed lives of a man and his wife. The couple’s four daughters were rescued however.

Separately, a child died while his mother was badly wounded when the roof of a house caved in in Tangi Shodak area of Charsadda.

In Kurram Agency, six members of a family died in a roof-collapse incident. The victims included four children and their parents. None could be rescued since the area is far from the administration’s operations.

In a statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said a landslide left a woman and her two children dead in Muzaffarabad’s Sirli Sucha area and destroyed six houses. Army rescuers rushed to save the lives of others.

Meanwhile, lightning claimed a girl’s life in Kotli tehsil of Azad Kashmir.

Several link roads in Shangla district have been shut due to land-sliding at different points as incessant rains continue battering the KP province. Karakoram Highway is blocked at six different points from Basham to Dasu.

Connection of Kalam with adjoining areas was cut off as a result of land-sliding in Mankial area of Swat. As a result, many motorists were stranded.

Pakistan Meteorological Department has forecast rains in Punjab’s capital of Lahore in the next 24 hours. Different areas in Lahore received light rain showers Friday night.

Spell of rains began last Thursday across the country hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan the worst. By March 14, death toll from rain-related incidents was reported around 42.