Pakistan rescuers reclaim bodies following monsoon rains murder over 340
(MENAFN) Rescue teams in northern Pakistan are battling difficult conditions to recover bodies after devastating monsoon rains triggered flash floods that have killed at least 344 people over the past two days, officials said Saturday.
The National Disaster Management Authority reported that 324 deaths occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where collapsing houses and powerful floods caused the majority of casualties. Another 137 people were injured.
“It felt like the end of the world,” one resident told AFP, describing the force of the torrents.
Around 2,000 rescue workers are deployed across nine districts, but heavy rain, landslides, and washed-out roads have severely hampered efforts, according to provincial rescue agency spokesman Bilal Ahmed Faizi. Teams often have to walk to remote disaster zones, making evacuations extremely challenging. Many families are unwilling to leave, waiting instead for news of missing loved ones still trapped under debris.
Deputy commissioner Kashif Qayum Khan of Buner district said rescuers are improvising new ways to access cut-off areas, warning that many victims may remain buried in rubble that cannot be cleared manually.
Authorities have declared six mountainous districts — Buner, Bajaur, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra, and Battagram — as disaster zones. The meteorological department has issued fresh heavy rainfall alerts for the northwest, urging precautionary measures.
Elsewhere, 11 fatalities were reported in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, nine in Gilgit-Baltistan, and five more when a government helicopter crashed in bad weather during a relief mission.
The monsoon, which provides most of South Asia’s annual rainfall and is essential for agriculture, also brings recurring destruction — a cycle made worse by the intensity of this year’s downpours.
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