Islamabad, July 30: Ten people, among them four members of one family, lost their lives and several others were injured in rain-related incidents in parts of Punjab during the last two days, Dawn reported on Saturday.
Four members of a family were killed in a hill torrent at Talpur Choti Zaireen area of Kot Chhutta tehsil on Friday evening. Rescue sources said that continuous rain on the Sulaiman mountain range resulted in hill torrents which destroyed hundreds of villages in Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur districts.
Countless people were displaced in the latest hill torrent and four family members — Zahid and Aslam, sons of Afzal, wife of Farooq and Qasim, all residents of Choti Zaireen, were swept away by strong waters. Rescuers managed to fish out their dead bodies after some time.
In another incident four cotton pickers were buried alive and 14 others were injured when the roof of a house at 102/9-L village on Arifwala Road (Sahiwal) caved in.
Reports said around three dozen women labourers had been staying at an outhouse owned by one Muhammad Bakhsh, the landlord, for the last one week. The roof of the place caved in because of heavy rain as a result of which Zarina, 40, Ayesha, 15, Razia Bibi, 32, and Bibi Rani, 62, were killed. Hospital sources said among the injured were two children and six women who were critical.
A number of rescuers reached the spot but heavy rain hampered rescue work.
Chief Minister Parvez Elahi took notice of the death of the four women and sought a report from the commissioner.
In Okara a five-year-old boy was killed and six people including an elderly woman injure when the roof of their cattle pen collapsed at 36/37 2RA village, about eight kilometres away from here.
The roof collapsed as a result of which five family family members Akram, 42, Aslam, 35, Salman, 20, Shakir, 14, and Salina, 70, suffered injuries while Akram’s son Shan was buried alive.
At Dilawarkot on Deepalpur-Pakpattan Road, a 14-year-old boy suffered head injury when the roof of his teastall collapsed during rain. A rescue team reached the spot and shifted the injured boy to the Deepalpur THQ hospital. In Toba Tek Singh a boy drowned in the Chenab river in Jhang.
Rescue 1122 reported that Shoaib Aslam, 17, a resident of Basti Moranwali, Jhang was bathing and went into deep where he drowned.
