Online Reporter
Heavy rainfall and flash flooding devastated parts of India and Pakistan on Friday, resulting in over 280 fatalities and hundreds of people missing, according to officials from both nations. Rescuers successfully evacuated around 1 600 individuals from two mountainous districts in both countries.
Friday’s flooding was preceded by a massive cloudburst that struck the village of Chasoti in India’s union territory of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, killing 46 people and causing extensive damage, according to news agency PTI.
The flash floods swept away a makeshift market, a community kitchen, a security outpost, along with 16 residential houses, government buildings, three temples, four water mills, a 30-metre bridge, and more than a dozen vehicles. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah put the death toll at 60 on Friday, with around 75 people missing.
However, the flooding rapidly spread north and northwest into Pakistan, triggered by intense and sudden downpours. It caused widespread damage, injuring dozens and displacing thousands, particularly in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the AP report noted.
Provincial emergency service spokesman in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa told the agency that rescuers worked for hours to save 2 000 tourists trapped by flash flooding and landslides in the region. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered the evacuation of tourists and all those hit by the floods.
In India, the affected village, Chasoti, in Kashmir’s Kishtwar district, serves as the last motor-accessible point on the route to a high-altitude Hindu shrine, which is part of an annual pilgrimage that began on July 25 and was set to conclude on September 5. Officials announced that the pilgrimage has been suspended.
It is the second large-scale tragedy in the Himalayas in the past two weeks. On August 5, massive flash floods triggered by a cloudburst destroyed a village in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. According to local authorities, five people lost their lives, while 1 126 were evacuated from the affected areas. At least 68 people are still missing, including 24 Nepali citizens.—RT
