Gilgit:
At least eight volunteers were killed and several others are feared when a landslide hit a water channel damaged by Danyor’s floods from Gilgit during the repair work, police said on Monday.
Volunteers worked to restore the chain when a ground of earth suddenly collapsed, buried them under debris, according to the police.
Hospital sources have confirmed that all people killed were members of a team of local volunteers, while three others were injured.
While the search for more survivors continued, the authorities declared an emergency in local hospitals. A spokesperson for the provincial government said that the accelerated glacial merger, driven by climate change, increased water flow in several rivers in the region.
President Asif Ali Zardari expressed his deep sorrow with the incident, offering sympathies and condolences to the families of deceased volunteers.
In a press release, he paid tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for humanity “.
“The whole nation is leaded by the loss of precious lives in the tragedy,” he said and prayed for the rapid recovery of the injured.
The brilliant glacier recently flooded, damaging agricultural land and closing a section of the Karakoram highway (KKH) towards Hunza. Traffic was diverted via Nagar Road, while those responsible warned more rain and landslides.
An important KKH section in the Morkhun region of Upper Hunza was also destroyed by the erosion of the river, breaking the earthly bond between Pakistan and China, confirmed the government of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
“The river erosion remains a key contributor to road blockages in the region,” said a cryosphere expert at The Express PK Press Club. “Although the disturbances on the KKH are not unusual, the current intensity of the swelling of the river and the scale of damage are much higher.”
GB government spokesperson Faizullah Faraq said that the increase in the river flow had led to the collapse of a KKH section, which made him impassable. Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan directed the immediate restoration of the route.
Earlier, the authorities expressed alerts for possible floods in local rivers and draws in Dera Ghazi Khan, northeast and superior Punjab, Islamabad / Rawalpindi, northeast of Balutchistan, Cashmire, Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Manshra, Murree, Galiyat, Kohistan, Abbottabad, Abbottabad, Abbottabad, Abbottabad Bunder, Swabi, now.
They also warned against a high risk of landslides in the hilly regions of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Murrier, Galiyat, Cashmire and GB, with the potential to disturb road networks and communications.
