LOWER DIR/CHITRAL: A woman was killed in Dalgram area in Lower Dir district when a mud-built room of her house collapsed due to rains.
Also, the Broze village in Chitral was struck by a catastrophe on Tuesday afternoon, for the second time in less than a week, when simultaneous cloudbursts at two different locations triggered horrific flash floods, completely severing the main traffic artery connecting Chitral with the rest of the country.
The Broze village, situated near Chitral city along the main Chitral-Peshawar Road, is still reeling from devastation of last week’s floods, according to residents.
They said the horrendous torrents rapidly overwhelmed the bridge over the Gumbus nullah, sweeping away four shops in the immediate locality.
Cloudbursts wreak havoc in Chitral
The residents said a nearby filling station, which was still buried under the mud and debris from the previous week’s flood, was inundated for a second time before any clearance work could be completed.
They said further down the road, the furious floodwaters completely washed away the makeshift bridge over the Broze Gol nullah.
The residents said the torrents also destroyed the critical foundation work of a permanent bridge currently under construction at the site, dealing a severe blow to the area’s infrastructure development.
They said the double onslaught has entirely suspended vehicular traffic between Peshawar and Chitral, with the highway blocked at two separate points within Broze village.
The residents said hundreds of passengers traveling to Chitral from Rawalpindi and Peshawar found themselves stranded near Gumbas Gol as night fell.
Consecutively, transport companies canceled all scheduled departures, and no buses or passenger vehicles were able to leave Chitral for down-country cities on Tuesday evening.
The residents said they were facing immense financial ruin.
Nasir Azad of Broze told Dawn over the phone that the flash floods had caused widespread, crushing losses to standing maize crops and fruit orchards, which formed the economic backbone of the local population.
He said according to preliminary estimates, more than 12 houses had also been partially damaged by the invading waters and debris.
Mr Azad revealed that the flood completely washed away the vital irrigation channel in Broze Gol.
He said the local community spent days repairing the very channel, completing the restoration on a self-help basis only Tuesday morning, hours before the cloudburst destroyed it again.
Heavy machinery from the National Highway Authority has been mobilised to the affected sites. Teams have begun the uphill task of clearing the massive mounds of boulders, mud, and debris in an effort to restore at least one-way traffic for the stranded commuters.
However, residents feared that due to the extent of the damage to the stream beds and the destruction of the makeshift structures, fully normalising the traffic flow could take considerable time.
Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026