PESHAWAR: With rains lashing large parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, five people were killed in related incidents on Sunday.

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority confirmed five deaths in Buner, Malakand and Mansehra districts and said that one person was injured in a rain-related incident.

It said that three rooms of a house collapsed due to heavy rain in the Teenolo Dheri area of Buner district, leaving a woman dead and a man wounded.

The PDMA said that two children and a woman were drowned in a flooded watercourse of Malakand district’s Heero Shah union council after downpour.

Roads blocked; houses, crops damaged; power supply suspended

Also, flash floods hit Putwar Halqa Jabba area in Mansehra district, causing a youth to drown.

On Sunday morning, the provincial capital also received heavy rain, almost after a gap of a month, which eased high temperatures.

Intense monsoon rains accompanied by strong winds lashed parts of Lower South Waziristan tribal district on Sunday, causing flash floods, which devastated agricultural lands and damaged solar infrastructure in Wana, Shakai and Birmal.

The downpour resulted in high flooding in the seasonal stream Dana, sweeping away large swathes of fertile farmland along its banks.

The floodwaters entered villages in Wacha Khowara and Tiarza, destroying acres of cultivated land.

The residents said maize, vegetables and standing crops were washed away, causing heavy losses to farmers.

Preliminary assessments estimate the damage to span hundreds of kanals.

Gusty winds destroyed or damaged solar panels installed on rooftops in various areas. Power outages were also reported in several areas to the misery of residents.

The accumulated rainwater and mud rendered roads in both urban and rural areas impassable, while several remote villages were cut off from the district’s central part.

The downpour brought life to a standstill, with the markets reporting little activity, most students staying away from schools and offices remained partially closed. Most residents stayed indoors amid fears of further flooding and infrastructure collapse.

The district administration launched emergency operations and deployed Rescue 1122 and other teams to assess the situation and damage.

Officials conducted site visits to key streams and flood-prone zones to monitor rising water levels and initiate preventive measures. Authorities said that continuous monitoring was under way and relief operations would be scaled up as needed.

As the torrential rain caused landslides, dozens of villages in the Gadoon Amazai mountainous regions remained cut off from other parts of the district as well as the country, according to residents.

They said that the main roads, which connected the region with the district, were blocked by landslides to the suffering of people, who complained that no alternative routes were available.

Resident Syed Bahadar said that rescue teams had yet not reached his area to clear the roads.

“We’re eagerly waiting for the arrival of rescuers,” he said.

He complained that as the road had been closed for 36 hours, the relief teams had yet not reached the area. He said that the locals were trying to reopen the road on their own.

Scores of vehicles remained stranded in the Jar area of Bajaur tribal district after the accumulation of rainwater on the “temporary” bypass of the damaged bridge on Monday.

Rescue 1122 officials and residents said for a while, dozens of vehicles got stuck on the one-kilometre temporary section of the Bajaur-Mardan Highway, a substitute for the damaged Jar bridge, after it was inundated with floodwater.

However, Rescue 1122 officials said that a team of rescuers and divers were dispatched to the area soon after receiving information about the stranded motorists.

They said that the divers’ efforts, which lasted for around an hour, cleared the road through water drainage.

Upper parts of Hazara Division also received heavy downpour, increasing the water level in the rivers and streams.

In Mansehra, Torghar, Upper and Lower Kohistan and Kolai-Palas districts, the rainfall started in the evening and continued intermittently all through the night.

The water level significantly went upin Kunhar River, Siren River, Indus River and streams across Hazara Division.

In Haripur, downpour-induced landslides in the remote union council of Ghazi tehsil disconnected the road link of over a dozen villages in the Baitgali union council with the tehsil headquarters Ghazi, villagers and police said on Monday.

“At least one main road and four link roads connecting the Devi village council in the Baitgali union council have been blocked since Sunday night due to heavy landslides,”

chairman of the Devi village council Qari Noor Hussain told Dawn over the phone.

He said that the heavy rain lashed the remote union councils of Baitgali and Nara Amazai on Sunday night until Monday morning intermittently, causing landslides at multiple points.

He said that blocked roads brought traffic to a complete halt, while life in several villages had been paralysed.

The schoolchildren and daily-wage workers who travel daily to Ghazi faced mobility problems as alternative land routes were not available to villagers, according to resident Abdul Raheem.

Saqib Khan, a government employee, also said that the main road connecting several villages of Nara Amazai to Ghazi via Gadoon industrial estate was also blocked due to a landslide at Bergali village.

Villagers and councillors told reporters that the heavy rain also damaged the boundary wall of the Government Girls High School Gali that was under construction.

Qari Noor Hussain said that the officials of TMA were informed about the incident, so on the directives of the tehsil council chairman, the machinery was shifted to the affected points in two union councils.

He expressed the hope that the roads would be cleared of debris by Tuesday morning.

Baitgali is the second remotest union council in Haripur district after Nara Amazai. However the promises of authorities over the last many decades to develop it remained unfulfilled. It is situated in the north east about 170km, so people have to travel by road via Swabi district.

It has another water route of Tarbela Lake for which one has to travel by boat for around 3 hours before reaching the first village Lakab, which also requires villagers to go on foot to the desired destination after an additional journey of two hours.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2025