Dozens wounded; Governor, CM, others shocked
Tariq Saeed Peshawar
Several people are feared dead and dozens injured as an avalanche rolled over at last two dozen containers carrying supplies to Afghanistan, lined up at Torkham Tuesday wee hours.
The Army supervised rescue teams retrieving the people buried alive under hundreds of tons of rock. The officials apprehend that the death toll is feared to go higher as scores of people may be trapped under the debris.
Reports reaching here said the land slide was caused by continuous rains coupled with thunderstorm and lightning on the main road through Khyber Pass near the Torkham border, a route connecting Pakistan with Afghanistan, a major transit point for trade between the South Asian nations and into Central Asia.
According to officials scores of trucks carrying essential supplies to Afghanistan including edible were lined up near Khyber pass when thunderstorm and lighting triggered heavy land sliding before dawn (at Sehri time). Hundreds of tons of rock rolled over at least twenty-five trucks and buried scores of people alive.
Two Afghan citizens had been killed, and authorities were trying to recover the bodies. Three other people had been taken to hospital and the number of casualties could rise, he added.
Rescue teams rushed to the sight of the land sliding and kicked off the operation for the retrieval of the people. Till the filing of this report at least three dead bodies and over dozen seriously injured were pulled out from the debris. The wounded persons were dispatched to hospitals with many in precarious condition.
“Twenty to twenty-five containers are buried in the wreckage,” Abdul Nasir Khan, deputy commissioner of the Khyber district said adding the wreckage was quite extensive and our rescue operation was continuing with heavy machinery.
“More than a hundred trucks were lined up waiting for their turn to cross the border after Sehri when lightning hit the hill alongside the road triggering heavy land slide that engulfed at least twenty containers loaded with different supplies,” the Locals said.
The Pak Army Jawaans and the engineers were striving to dig out the victims using heavy machinery including cutters, dozers, search cameras, radars and life locators, etc.
Along with the Karakoram Highway, several roads in Upper Kohistan and Diamer have been blocked due to the landslides, he said, adding that several passengers had been left stranded.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Haji Ghulam Ali, Chief Minister Mohammad Azam Khan, Minister for Excise and Narcotics Control Haji Manzoor Khan Afridi and others have expressed deep sense of shock and sorrow over the loss of life and property caused by a landslide. They expressed heartfelt sympathy and solidarity with the affected families
