Snowstorms and heavy rains have killed no fewer than 20 people in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the blocked roads and cancelled flights bringing daily life to a standstill.
”At least 20 people were killed in separate incidents caused by two days of heavy snowfall and rains in the south-western Pakistani province of Balochistan”, Local Rescue Chief Imran Zarkoon said on Monday.
Zarkoon said several thousand people were stranded in remote mountainous areas near the Afghan border after highways were blocked by a thick layer of snow.
At least seven people were dead in weather-related incidents in different parts of south-eastern Afghanistan since Sunday, said Hasibullah Shaikhani, spokesman for the disaster agency.
Flight operations at an international airport in Balochistan’s capital city of Quetta have come to halt, said Ismail Khosa, spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority.
Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal declared a state of emergency in the worse-hit districts and ordered the military to carry out rescue and relief operations, his office announced.
The metrological department in the capital Islamabad forecasted the current weather situation to continue until next week