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As the heavy rains continue to lash in several provinces of Pakistan, four more people have died in rain-related incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the Balochistan government has imposed an "urban flood emergency" in Quetta, reported Dawn.
The heavy rains accompanied by thunderstorms have lashed several parts of the country in the past few days, resulting in a total of 39 deaths, out of which 12 occurred on Sunday: six in KP, four in Punjab and two in Balochistan. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that he had directed the chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to coordinate with all the provinces during these situations. While addressing a high-level meeting on power projects, he expressed his condolences for the loss of lives, reported Dawn. He further urged the NDMA and its provincial counterparts to work together to ensure that basic relief supplies reached the places in need. According to a PDMA report issued on Sunday night, four children were killed in the Lower Dir district, taking the tally of casualties to 12, while over a dozen were injured. PDMA spokesperson Anwar Shahzad said that further information was being collected about losses and damages. According to a PDMA report issued late Sunday night, 85 houses were damaged during the past three days, including incidents of wall and roof collapses. The report noted that Chitral, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Shangla, Swat, Malakand and Bajaur districts were affected by the rainfall and that there was flooding in various rivers. According to a flooding report issued by the Peshawar Irrigation Department's Flood Cell at 1pm, the Panjkora River at Dir was witnessing a high-level flow of 64,028 cusecs. Similarly, the Swat River saw a high-level flow at Khwazakhela and Munda Headworks of 52,291 and 96,000 cusecs, respectively, according to Dawn. "Medium" flow was reported in the Kabul River at Nowshera, while "normal" flow was recorded at the Shah Alam, Naguman and Jindi rivers. Swat's Rescue 1122 spokesperson, Shafiq Gul, said a house collapse at Matta Swat resulted in over 40 cattle perishing. However, nobody was injured in the incident. Heavy rain coupled with thunderstorms resulted in main and link roads being blocked, paralysing life across the province, reported Dawn. According to the National Highway Authority (NHA), the Karakoram Highway was open for all sorts of traffic. However, tourists travelling to Swat, Kalam and Kumrat were stranded at multiple locations as the Kalam road was blocked at various points due to landslides. The Bisham-Swat road was also blocked at several points in Shangla. Ahmad Ali, a tourist from Abbottabad, lamented that he had not seen any government authority take measures to reopen the road or help them while they were stranded "without food or water." The tourist demanded that the government help and rescue the people stuck, as there were chances of more landslides occurring there while families remained stranded on the road. (ANI)
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