At least eight volunteers were killed and several others are feared trapped when a landslide struck a flood-damaged water channel in Gilgit’s Danyor Nullah during repair work, police said on Monday.
The volunteers were working to restore the channel when a mass of earth suddenly collapsed, burying them under debris, according to police.
Hospital sources confirmed that all those killed were members of a local volunteer team, while three others sustained injuries.
As the search for more survivors continued, authorities declared an emergency in local hospitals. A provincial government spokesperson said accelerated glacial melt, driven by climate change, had increased water flow in several streams across the region.
President Asif Ali Zardari expressed deep grief over the incident, offering sympathies and condolences to the families of the deceased volunteers.
In a statement, he paid tribute to those “who sacrificed their lives for the sake of humanity”.
“The entire nation is grieved over the loss of precious lives in the tragedy,” he said and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.
The Shishper glacier recently flooded, damaging farmland and closing a section of the Karakoram Highway (KKH) towards Hunza. Traffic has been diverted via Nagar Road, while officials warned of more rain and landslides.
A significant stretch of the KKH in Upper Hunza’s Morkhun area has also been destroyed by river erosion, severing the overland link between Pakistan and China, the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) government confirmed.
“River erosion remains a key contributor to highway blockages in the region,” a cryosphere expert told The Express Tribune. “Although disruptions on the KKH are not unusual, the current intensity of river swelling and the scale of damage are significantly higher.”
G-B government spokesperson Faizullah Faraq said the increased river flow led to the collapse of a section of the KKH, rendering it impassable. Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan has directed the immediate restoration of the route.
Earlier, authorities issued alerts for possible flooding in local streams and nullahs in Dera Ghazi Khan, northeastern and upper Punjab, Islamabad/Rawalpindi, northeastern Balochistan, Kashmir, Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra, Murree, Galiyat, Kohistan, Abbottabad, Buner, Swabi, Nowshera and Mardan.
They also warned of a high risk of landslides in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s hilly areas, Murree, Galiyat, Kashmir and G-B, with the potential to disrupt road networks and communications.
