PESHAWAR: A 12-year-old boy was killed and four others of a family suffered injuries when their house collapsed as persistent downpour in plain areas and snowfall on mountains lashed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas on Friday.

The widespread rains started on Thursday night and continued on Friday across the KP and Fata. According to Met office, 11mm rain was recorded in Peshawar, 16 mm in Parachinar, 17mm in Bannu, 17mm in Swat, 15mm in Balakot, 31mm in Dera Ismail Khan and 1mm in Chitral. The rain will continue on Saturday, says an official at Met office in Peshawar.

In Tank, Nadeem Akbar, 12, died while four others identified as Rafiullah, Syed Rehman, Adil and six-year-old Zota suffered critical injuries when roof of a house of one Naeemullah caved in in Waroki village. The residents retrieved the body and injured from the rubble. The injured were taken to the district headquarters hospital, Tank.

It may be recalled that the entire Waroki village was swept away in 2010 flood and the residents were shifted to safer places. They are still residing in mud houses and tents.

Upper parts of Hazara also received heavy rain which caused severe chill in the division. The rain started early on Friday morning and continued for the entire day intermittently in Mansehra, Torghar and Kohistan. Many link roads in remote areas of Hazara division remained blocked for traffic following landslides triggered by the heavy rain.

In Shangla, the rain started at midday and continued on Friday. Heavy rain was recorded in Bisham, Alpuri, Chakisar, Martoon and Puran areas, and snowfall in Spin Ghar, Gamtal and Alai Ghar.

The Karakoram Highway was closed to traffic in Maira area of Bisham and Jijal area of Kohistan due to landslides. Traffic between Islamabad and Gilgit also came to a standstill because of landslides. The heavy rain also disrupted supply of electricity in Shangla district.

In Charsadda, rain started on Thursday night and continued on Friday. Local people said that the rain was beneficial for the standing wheat crop in the area. Assistant commissioner, Charsadda, Noor Wali Khan said that presently there was no threat of floods. However, he said that all arrangements had been made to cope with any emergency.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2016