At least 321 people killed due to heavy rain, floods in Pakistan

Hundreds have been killed in recent weeks as Pakistan experienced more rain than usual during the current monsoon season, washing away roads and buildings

The death toll from heavy monsoon rains that have triggered flash floods across northern Pakistan has risen to at least 321 people in the last 48 hours, disaster agencies said Saturday.

The majority of deaths, 307, were reported in the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority said.

Hundreds have been killed in recent weeks as Pakistan experienced more rain than usual during the current monsoon season, washing away roads and buildings.

The majority of those killed have died in flash floods and collapsing houses.

Five others, including two pilots, were killed when a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government helicopter crashed due to bad weather during a mission to deliver relief goods, the chief minister of the province, Ali Amin Gandapur, said in a statement.

The provincial government has declared the severely affected mountainous districts of Buner, Bajaur, Mansehra and Battagram as disaster-hit areas.

In Bajaur, a tribal district abutting Afghanistan, a crowd amassed around an excavator trawling a mud-soaked hill, AFP photos showed. 

Funeral prayers began in a paddock nearby, with people grieving in front of several bodies covered by blankets.

The meteorological department has issued a heavy rain alert for the northwest, urging people to avoid “unnecessary exposure to vulnerable areas”.

In the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, a region divided with Pakistan, rescuers pulled bodies from mud and rubble on Friday after a flood crashed through a Himalayan village, killing at least 60 people and washing away dozens more.

Prolonged monsoon

The monsoon season brings South Asia about three-quarters of its annual rainfall, vital for agriculture and food security, but it also brings destruction.

Landslides and flash floods are common during the season, which usually begins in June and eases by the end of September.

Syed Muhammad Tayyab Shah, a representative of the national disaster agency, told AFP that this year’s monsoon season began earlier than usual and is expected to end later.

“The next 15 days, particularly from August 16 till the 30th of August, the intensity of the monsoon will further exacerbate,” he added.

The provincial government has declared Saturday as a day of mourning, chief minister Gandapur said.

“The national flag will fly at half-mast across the province, and the martyrs will be laid to rest with full state honours,” the statement from his office said. 

Scientists say that climate change has made weather events around the world more extreme and more frequent.

Pakistan is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change, and its population is contending with extreme weather events with increasing frequency.

The torrential rains that have pounded Pakistan since the start of the summer monsoon, described as “unusual” by authorities, have killed more than 320 people, nearly half of them children. 

In July, Punjab, home to nearly half of Pakistan’s 255 million people, recorded 73 percent more rainfall than the previous year and more deaths than in the entire previous monsoon.

In 2022, monsoon floods submerged a third of the country and killed 1,700 people.