By Nisar Ahmad Khan
Saturday, 20 Feb, 2010
MANSEHRA: The National Disaster Management Authority and the army launched a rescue and relief operation in Kohistan on Friday, two days after an avalanche slammed into a mountainous village in Kandian tehsil late on Wednesday night, killing at least 52 people.
Local people feared that the death toll from the disaster might reach 80 because several houses in Bagro village remained buried under snow.
Seven survivors were rescued on Friday.
Kohistan DCO Ameenul Haq told Dawn that helicopters airdropped food and relief goods in the affected area but could not land because of heavy snowfall.
Thirty-two bodies had been retrieved till Friday, but a number of people were still believed to be buried under snow, he added.
"It is a big tragedy. The bodies are buried 50-60 feet deep," local MPA Abdul Sattar Khan told this correspondent who, along with the MPA, Hazara Division Commissioner Waqar Ayub and a team of the NDMA and army headed by Lt-Col Asif Ghafoor, visited the Kandian valley.
The first sortie was 25km short of the affected area because of the snowfall. A medical team of King Abdullah Teaching Hospital accompanied the rescue team and was stationed near Karan area.
According to local people, 17 members of the families of one Mohammad Rafiq and his brother Habib Shah were buried alive and their bodies could not be retrieved.
AFP adds:
Local residents reached the scene first, but police arrived more than 24 hours after the avalanche hit the poorly developed region, police officer Mohammad Ilyas said in Dasu, the main town in Kohistan.
"They were ill-equipped, but using local tools like spades and sticks residents joined police and recovered seven people alive," he said.