Flood in Pakistan kills 54
By wire services
Published February 12, 2005
QUETTA, Pakistan - Heavy rains caused a large dam to burst in a remote area of southwestern Pakistan, releasing a torrent of water that killed at least 54 people and left at least 400 others missing, officials said Friday.
Most of the dead were recovered by coast guard patrols sweeping the coast with fishing nets, provincial Cabinet minister Sher Jan Baluch said. Baluch said at least 400 people were still unaccounted for, and he feared the death toll would rise. Some of the missing might be taking shelter in homes, nearby mountains or other surrounding areas.
The 485-foot-long Shakidor Dam burst late Thursday near Pasni, a remote village in Baluchistan province, inundating the area with water.
More than 1,200 villagers have been rescued from the floodwaters, said Mudasser Butt, an army spokesman in Quetta.
Thousands of troops, backed by helicopters and coast guard boats, have rushed to the area. Continued heavy rains have hampered rescue efforts.
Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the top spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf, refused to speculate on how many people may have died. Witnesses described seeing trucks and tankers swept out to sea.
The Shakidor dam was built in 2003 to help with irrigation in the area. More than a week of heavy rains has damaged telephone lines, roads and eight bridges in the area, Butt said.
He said troops diverted the flow of floodwaters to save other towns near Pasni, about 400 miles south of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.
Troops and local authorities also were supplying food, medicine and tents to the affected people in Pasni and elsewhere, he said. Some 3,000 troops and paramilitary forces were participating in the rescue operation.
Pakistan has been hit by more than a week of rain and snow, which in some parts of the country were the heaviest in seven years, said Qamar-uz Zaman Chaudhry, the head of the nation's meteorological department. More severe weather was expected in the next two days, he said.
Meanwhile, at least two people were killed early Friday in another part of Baluchistan when floodwaters overturned their bus, officials said. Eighteen other people were reported missing.
At least 30 soldiers were missing after an avalanche buried their vehicles on a mountain road in northwestern Pakistan early Friday, Pakistan's private Geo television reported. It gave no other details.
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Abbas' planned meetings with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad faction were the latest sign of his commitment to keeping intact the truce he and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared Tuesday to end 41/2 years of bloodletting.
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Yushchenko is expected to return to Ukraine on Sunday.