PM reviews relief work in avalanche-hit areas
muzaffarabad — Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday visited Azad Kashmir’s capital Muzaffarabad to review relief operations in the wake of damages incurred due to snowfall and avalanches in the region.
Extreme weather conditions in the Neelum Valley on Tuesday resulted in the deaths of at least 70 individuals.
The prime minister also attended a briefing by AJK Chief Secretary Mathar Niaz Rana regarding loss of life and property in Kashmir. Khan visited the Combined Military Hospital in Muzaffarabad and enquired after the health of the injured people there.
21 more bodies found
Search teams aided by Pakistani troops pulled out 21 more bodies from homes destroyed by avalanches in Azad Kashmir, raising the overall death toll due to severe winter weather to 160 for Pakistan and Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday.
Rescuers were racing against time to reach scores of people believed still to be trapped inside their homes, buried under avalanches triggered by heavy snowfall in Azad Kashmir. With many roads still blocked by snow, authorities were using helicopters to evacuate those injured.
The worst affected area was Kashmir’s Neelum Valley, where the 21 bodies were retrieved, said Ahmed Raza Qadri, a minister for disaster management.
He said since Sunday, 76 people have been killed in Azad Kashmir in weather-related incidents. Another 45 people were killed in Balochistan and Punjab provinces. Kashmir’s disaster management authority chief Saeed-ur-Rehamn Qureshi said scores of houses had been damaged. —