PESHAWAR, Feb 14: At least 21 people were killed and 33 are missing after avalanches hit villages in Mansehra and Kohistan districts on Sunday night.
"The devastation caused by avalanches has not only resulted in losses of human lives; all the more, villagers have lost their food stock in the remote snow-covered parts of Hazara and Malakand regions," a senior officer of the provincial government said.
The problem of stranded families running short of food is said to have attained serious proportions because several of the snow- covered areas have been rendered inaccessible.
And bad weather in the snow-bound valleys of Hazara and Malakand regions also make helicopter flights difficult. And according to weather forecasts, the situation may worsen in days to come.
The upper parts of the Frontier province are likely to experience another prolonged spell of rain and snowfall as a strong weather system, originating from the Mediterranean, has entered Balochistan and would soon hit NWFP.
Meanwhile the total number of people killed in rain and snow- related incidents in the province rose to 148 on Monday. However, the Flood Relief Commission (FRC) has so far received (from district governments) claims for compensation from families of 192 people killed since December 2004.
The figure, officials said, included 120 people killed over the past 12 days after upper parts of the province were devastated by snowfall, recorded at 10 to 12 feet in some areas, and the prolonged rain spell.
"The data compiled till Feb 14 does not include the number of people killed in the two new avalanches which hit the Rajwal area of Mansehra district and Duber Gaya area of Kohistan district," said an official of the provincial government.
According to official sources, a provincial cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday has been postponed in view of a state of emergency in the province. Similarly, a high-level meeting of district collectors, also scheduled for Tuesday, has been cancelled because district revenue officers are compiling data of losses suffered over the past 12 days.
The massive avalanche in the Rajwal area of the Kaghan valley in the Hazara region of NWFP late on Sunday night, devastated a cluster of small houses and burying some 24 people.
"Twenty-one bodies have been recovered and three villagers are missing," said an official of the flood relief control room, established in the office of the Mansehra district coordination officer. Four villagers injured in the incident have been rescued.
The rescue operation which started on Sunday night continued throughout the day on Monday. A man was killed in the Pichla Pehla area of Kaghan valley on Monday after his house collapsed.
The avalanches which hit two villages in Kohistan district and left over 33 people missing. "Some 24 people are believed to be under snow in Duber Gaya area and nine in Saymun Darra area of Kohistan district, police officer Akbar Nasir said.
In two other incidents in Duber and Palas areas of district Kohistan, six people were killed and communication links have broken down. Though the federal government, officials said, had yet to respond to NWFP government's requests for 500 tents, 1000 blankets and a special grant of Rs100 million for relief work, the Pakistan Red Crescent Society handed over two trucks of relief goods to the provincial government in Islamabad on Monday.
