Gilgit:
At least eight volunteers were killed and several others are feared trapped when a landslide hit a flood -damaged water channel in Gilgits Danyor Nullah during repair work, police said Monday.
The volunteers worked to restore the canal when a soil mass suddenly collapsed and buried them under waste, according to police.
Hospital sources confirmed that all killers were members of a local volunteer team while three others sustained injuries.
As the search for several survivors continued, the authorities declared an emergency in local hospitals. A spokesman for the provincial government said that accelerated ice melt, driven by climate change, had increased the water flow in several streams throughout the region.
President Asif Ali Zardari expressed deep grief over the incident and offers sympathy and compassion for the families of the deceased volunteers.
In a statement, he paid tribute to them “who sacrificed their lives for the sake of humanity”.
“The whole nation is saddened by the loss of precious life in the tragedy,” he said, asking for the rapid improvement of the wounded.
Shishper Glacier recently flooded, damaged agricultural land and closed a section of Karakoram Highway (KKH) against Hunza. Traffic has been redirected via Nagar Road, while officials warned of more rain and landslides.
A significant stretch of KKH in Upper Hunza’s Morkhun area has also been destroyed by river erosion, which separates the overland connection between Pakistan and China, Gilgit-Baltist (GB) confirmed the government.
“River erosion is still an important contributor to highway blocks in the region,” a cryosphere expert told Express Pakinomist. “Although disturbances at KKH are not unusual, the current intensity of river swelling and the scale of damage is significantly higher.”
GB government spokesman Faizullah Faraq said the increased river flow led to the collapse of a section of KKH, making it unacceptable. Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan has directed the immediate restoration of the route.
Tidligere udsendte myndighederne advarsler om mulig oversvømmelse i lokale vandløb og nullahs i Dera Ghazi Khan, Northeastern og Upper Punjab, Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Northeastern Balochistan, Kashmir, Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Mancihra, Murree, Galiyat, Kohistan, Abbottabad, Buner, Swabi, Nowshere, Nowshere, Galiyat, Kohistan. Marran.
They also warned of a high risk of landslide in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s hilly areas, Murree, Galiyat, Kashmir and GB, with the potential to disrupt road network and communication.
