September 05, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 04, 1429

MANSEHRA, Sept 4: A mother with her three children died as floodwater destroyed about three dozen houses, shelters and tents of displaced families at a makeshift village in Balakot on Thursday.

Rain started after Iftar on Tuesday and continued intermittently till Thursday

morning as a result the floodwater from a nearby nullah entered the houses, shelters and tents of the residents, who had been shifted to the village after the earthquake, which devastated the region three years back.Salikha Bibi, her four-year-old daughter Saira, two sons: 12-year-old Zakir and seven-year-old

Owais died on the spot while Waliur Rehman, head of the family, and his son Babar sustained serious injuries. The injured were taken to a local hospital.

According to residents, after the incident, people rushed out of their houses and spent the night under the open sky in the area.

“The flood was another big incident which happened on the third day of Ramazan after the devastating October 8, 2005 earthquake,” said Mohammad Saddiq, a resident of the affected area.

Lightning and thunder storm also hit the area and spared terror among the residents of the makeshift village, he added.

Mr Saddiq said that the affected people retrieved the dead bodies and rescued the children and women who were trapped in the flood-hit area.

Following the tragedy, over two hundred people, who were living in makeshift houses, had been rendered homeless.

Munir Hussain Lughmani, union nazim of the affected area, told this scribe that the government should come forward to help the affected families, who needed food and shelter.

He said that he was in contact with Minister for Industry Syed Ahmad Hussain Shah and for the time being all the affected families would be shifted to nearby government school buildings.