February 13, 2002	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 29, 1422

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BAJAUR, Feb 12: Seven Afghan children died in two days from severe cold in the Kotkai and Chaharmang refugee camps in the Bajaur Agency.

An extremely cold wave has gripped the entire tribal agency, as the Bajaur and its adjacent mountainous areas received the first snowfall of the season last week.

The children who died from cold were between one and five years of age, sources said.

The severe cold has also affected scores of other children in the two refugee camp, while experts feared that fatal diseases might break out in the area as the refugee population lived in squalid conditions.

A number of diseases had been reported in the refugee camps established in the tribal area some weeks back and the situation has been turned more serious by snowfall. The mercury level in the area has dropped to minus 12 degree centigrade.

The sources said that dozens of children had contracted pneumonia and other fatal diseases in the two camps due to extremely cold weather. Paralysis has also hit elderly people, mostly women, the sources said.

Dr Karim of the agency headquarters hospital told Dawn that if precautionary measures were not taken, pneumonia and other contagious diseases could spread to other parts of the agency.

TWO WOMEN DIE: Two women, 40 and 45, died in labour at the hospital in the last week.