MANSEHRA/ALPURI: At least 52 people were feared dead and scores of others injured when an avalanche slammed into a remote hamlet in Kandian Tehsil of Kohistan district late on Wednesday night.
Inclement weather hampered rescue work in the mountainous area of Saroo in Bagro Dara. Local people retrieved bodies and injured from a number of houses buried under snow.
"So far 32 bodies and nine injured have been retrieved, but about 52 people are feared to have died," Kohistan's Nazim Dr Saidur Rehman told Dawn on phone.
The village is about 70km off Dassu, the district headquarters of Kohistan, and there is no paved road in the area. "We have received information that six houses were destroyed and around 25 others were damaged," Dr Rehman said, quoting some people who have managed to come out of the area.
He said the government had not started any rescue and relief work despite repeated requests. The injured cannot be taken to hospital because all approach routes are blocked. They had been kept in mosques, he added.
Police and personnel of other government agencies could not reach the village because Kandian road which links the affected valley with the rest of the country through Karakoram Highway is blocked.
Kohistan DCO Ameenul Haq told Dawn that about 50 people had died. He said the provincial Disaster Management Authority had promised to send a helicopter which would carry food, blankets and tents to the affected valley and airlift the injured.
The district nazim said that heavy snowfall over the past couple of days had made it difficult for rescue teams sent by the district administration to reach the affected area.
District Police Officer of Kohistan Mohammad Ilyas said that a police team had been sent to the area, but it had to walk on foot and was finding it difficult to reach the valley.
Head of the provincial Disaster Management Authority Shakeel Qadir told Dawn a helicopter would soon start operation, but it would depend on the weather condition.
Agencies add:
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has expressed grief and sorrow over the loss of lives and destruction of property caused by the avalanche.
He asked the authorities concerned to speed up rescue operation for safe evacuation of the trapped people and extend all possible relief and assistance. The prime minister also asked the provincial government to provide best medical facilities to the injured.
DPO Ilyas said: "We have recovered 19 dead bodies. According to a fresh report I have, there were 37 people buried under the glacier. It was a huge glacier and there is no chance that anybody will survive. If somebody is buried under such a huge glacier, he cannot survive."
A police official said he feared that some women and children were also trapped.
The remote village is cut off with no phone or communication links. "There is about five to seven feet of snow around the village and in the mountains - rescue workers are facing a lot of problems," he said, adding that one had to travel 50km on foot to reach the affected village.
A huge mass of snow slammed into a road about 150km west of Kohistan, burying local villagers returning after working at a construction project in the area, local police officer Sahab Nabi said. "We have recovered four bodies and three are still buried under the avalanche," he said.
Witnesses said people were forced to use spades and their hands to try and rescue the victims as no heavy machinery was able to reach the area.
The district nazim said the houses destroyed or buried were the homes of 52 people.
During winter, snow regularly triggers avalanches in various mountainous parts of Pakistan. Some 24 people died in May last year when an avalanche hit a village in Azad Kashmir.