More than 150 people died in flash floods in Pakistan in a single day, local officials said on Friday, adding to an ever-growing death toll this summer as South Asia battles with a devastating monsoon season.
Most of the deaths on Friday occurred in the northwestern region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, including at least 78 in the district of Buner, home to a noted Sufi shrine, according to the provincial disaster management authority. Most fatalities were caused by collapsed homes and by floodwaters sweeping people away.
“Entire villages have been destroyed,” Gohar Khan, a member of the Pakistani Parliament who represents Buner, told the TV channel Geo. “Roads have been washed away,” he added.
In a market town near the shrine, muddy torrents inundated shops and houses. From nearby mosques, clerics called on loudspeakers for divine help, urging residents to pray for safety.
“Everything I had, groceries, edible items, is destroyed,” said Syed Mehmood Bacah, a trader at the market, saying his losses were in the thousands of dollars. “I could not save anything,” he added.
At least 10 other people were swept away in the neighboring Gilgit-Baltistan region, according to a regional government spokesman, Faizullah Faraq.
A day earlier, at least 44 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in a flash flood that struck in the adjacent, Indian-controlled part of Jammu and Kashmir.
Heavy rainfalls were expected to lash the area for at least several more days, officials said, noting that the death toll was likely to rise significantly.
Pakistan has faced increasingly intense heat waves, including in its largest urban centers like Karachi; abnormal levels of torrential rain during the monsoon season; and flash floods caused by glaciers melting faster under rising temperatures, all of which scientists have attributed to climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
At least 477 people have died in rain-related incidents across Pakistan since this year’s monsoon season started in late June, according to the national disaster management agency.
More than 700 others have been injured.
In one of the deadliest recent episodes of worsening monsoon deluges, floods in 2022 killed more than 1,700 people, submerged a third of Pakistan and resulted in more than $30 billion in damage and losses in the country, according to World Bank estimates.
This year, heavy rains have pounded large swathes of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populated region; residential areas of Islamabad, the capital; and, overwhelmingly, the country’s mountainous north.
In Jabrarai, a riverside village in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 15 miles from the border with Afghanistan, torrential rains caused flash floods and a mudslide overnight Thursday and into Friday, killing at least 18 people and trapping others under debris, Shahid Ali, a district official, said.
According to Sharifullah Khan, a community activist who was assisting in the rescue efforts on Friday, “All the villagers were asleep” when the flooding hit.
Rescue teams had to reach the mountainous area on foot because the landslide had blocked the road, Mr. Khan added.
In another part of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, rescue services there said that more than 1,300 visitors were cut off for hours on Thursday by heavy rains and mudslides in the Siran Valley, known for its lush hills, pine tree forests and scenic hiking trails. They were eventually evacuated, according to the rescue services.
Deadly flash floods have also affected northern India, killing dozens. On Aug. 5, a wall of water pushed its way down a valley in the state of Uttarakhand, killing at least four people. A week later, 66 of those reported missing there had yet to be found.
Elian Peltier is an international correspondent for The Times, covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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