Search operation for 20 missing tourists underway in Gilgit-Baltistan region
Massive monsoon rains compounded by flash floods continued to batter the northern and eastern regions of Pakistan on Tuesday, killing another nine people, officials and local media reported.
At least five people were killed in the tourist Swat Valley of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, while another two bodies were recovered in the Diamir district of the northern Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region.
Another two people were washed away by flash floods in the Bajaur tribal district near the Afghanistan border.
Sajid Ali, a regional administrative official, told media that their bodies were recovered in a search operation.
Faizullah Faraq, a spokesman for the GB government, told Anadolu by telephone that the bodies of two tourists who went missing after a cloudburst in the Diamir district on Monday have been recovered, while a search operation is continuing to locate 15 to 20 missing people in the area.
He added that some 250 trapped tourists have been rescued and shifted to safer places.
Aside from Diamir, he further said, massive rains and flash floods have also struck Skardu, Hunza, Ghanchay, and other districts, washing away several roads and bridges and disconnecting villages.
Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the road connecting the Sapara and Deosai valleys of Skardu after it was closed at 10 different points due to the floods, he maintained.
A retired army officer and his daughter also went missing after their vehicle was washed away by rain-triggered flash floods in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Tuesday.
Footage aired on local broadcaster Geo News showed their black car being washed away by gushing waters as the ex-army officer, Ishaq Qazi, waved his hand in panic, apparently seeking help.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Tuesday issued a fresh landslide warning for several parts of GB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and Pakistan-administered Kashmir due to torrential rains.
The authority warned tourists to avoid travel to these areas.
The fresh casualties have soared the nationwide death toll to 234 people, including 112 children, since June 26, according to an NDMA report.
Most of the deaths have been reported across Punjab.
President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in separate statements, expressed grief over the loss of lives in rain-related accidents and directed the relevant agencies to go all out to rescue the stranded people.
