Rain related incidents in northern Pakistan kill forty-five

Heavy rains and landslides have made life tough for the people living in the northern parts of Pakistan. Roof of several homes came crashing down as well in the districts of Shangla, Chitral, Charsadda and other areas.

A father along with his three children were killed when the roof of his house came crashing down on the family while a girl was killed in a similar incident killed when in Shabqadar area.

Two women were reportedly washed away by the floods in Swat River.

Several roads were closed down due to landslides in Swat, Kohistan and Mansehra due to which the passengers were stranded.

According to a press release issued by Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), widespread rain/thundershowers with isolated heavy falls expected in upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Dir, Swat, Shangla, Kohistan, Batagram, Mansehra districts), Gilgit Baltistan (Gilgit, Ghizer, Diamer & Astore districts) & Kashmir (Neelam Valley & Muzaffarabad districts) during Saturday evening to Sunday.
“Heavy downpours may trigger landslides in the vulnerable areas during the period”, PMD stated.

The weather department added that heavy rains may also generate isolated flash flooding in the local ravines and streams of the above mentioned areas on Saturday/Sunday.

PMD added that, “Widespread rain-thundershower accompanied by strong gusty winds with isolated heavy falls and snowfall over the hills is expected in Malakand, Hazara divisions, Islamabad, FATA, Gilgit-Baltistan & Kashmir. Scattered rain-thundershower accompanied with strong gusty winds is expected KP (Peshawar, Mardan, Bannu, Kohat, D.I.Khan divisions), upper Punjab (Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Gujranwala divisions) and isolated rain-thundershower with strong gusty winds/dust raising winds expected in D.G.Khan, Multan, Sahiwal, Faisalabad, Lahore, Quetta , Zhob Kalat, Sibbi divisions”.

The weather department also mentioned that mainly dry weather is expected in most parts of the country for the next 48 hours. However rain thunderstorm is expected at isolated places in Malakand, Hazara, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala divisions, Islamabad, Upper Fata, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir.