Bad weather kills over 1,100 in S. Asia

Bad weather kills over 1,100 in S. Asia

Penny MacRae, Agence France-Presse/New Delhi

Avalanches in Indian Kashmir, icy temperatures in Afghanistan and torrential rain and snow in Pakistan pushed the death toll on Wednesday from an extreme cold snap gripping South Asia to over 1,100, many of them children.

In Indian Kashmir army and civilian rescuers braved sub-zero cold and harsh Himalayan winds to search for survivors of avalanches that have claimed 229 lives since Saturday, police said.

"Some bodies have been buried, some are inside a mosque and others scattered on the snow. The entire village is devastated," rescuer Ghulam Mohammed Wagay said in Watlingo village, one of a string of communities crushed by snowslides.

The army was flying in doctors and nurses to avalanche-hit parts of southern Indian Kashmir, along with snowmobiles to reach remote regions.

In Afghanistan frigid weather had claimed at least 350 lives -- 211 of them children -- as poor parents fed opium to their youngsters to ease their suffering from hunger, numbing cold and respiratory ailments such as pneumonia.

"Some parents don't go to doctors and administer opium to the kids to stop the cough, and that stops the cough but can also kill them," said Health Minister Sayeed Amin Fatimie.

"We have 211 confirmed deaths of children under the age of five due to cold-related diseases such as respiratory tract infections or whooping cough in the last one month and a half," Fatimie added.

One humanitarian group, Catholic Relief Services, said up to 1,000 children could have been killed by brutal weather in western Ghor province alone, although officials rejected the figure.

On the outskirts of Kabul Mohammed Ismael, who lost his infant son, cradled one of his two surviving boys. "The child was only 15 days old. A boy. There were icicles on the inside of the tent when we woke up. How can a baby survive that?" he asked.

Many Afghan children are already malnourished and weakened by weeks of freezing temperatures and the situation could worsen with many villages cut off by deep snow running out of food and fuel, aid groups warned.

In Pakistan, heavy snow and lashing rains have killed at least 533 people at both ends of the country in the past three weeks, federal government relief center spokesman Mashal Khan said.

Troops have airlifted to safety those most in peril and dropped supplies to others. The worst hit area was North West Frontier Province where at least 335 have died. Another 42 died in the lawless Tribal Areas.

Floods are believed to have claimed 85 lives in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, many when the Shadi Kor dam near the coast burst Feb. 10 under pressure from rain and runoff from melting mountain snow.

A series of avalanches in Pakistan's zone of divided Kashmir killed 56, according to officials, and 15 in neighboring northern areas.

In Indian Kashmir, where avalanches and landslides have killed a total of 254 people over the past two weeks, the army has appealed to people in mountainous areas to flee their homes.

It said it fears more avalanches once temperatures start to rise after six villages were crushed by snowslides since Saturday. "People in higher reaches must vacate before they're overtaken by tragedy," said Maj. Gen. Raj Mehta.

Indian authorities were hesitant to estimate how many were still missing but civilian volunteers said they believed the number was over 300 in the region, blanketed by the heaviest snow in decades.

"I can tell you more than 300 people are still missing," said one volunteer, Manzoor Ahmed. In Watlingo village where some families were wiped out by the wall of snow, rescuers were laying bodies on the ground.

"We're burying the dead in mass graves. Men separately and women separately," said Raj Wali, 65, who lost his two daughters, aged 5 and 15, when a wall of snow slammed into their house.

"I've lost my wife, four children and mother," sobbed Ghulam Hussain, 45.

Weather officials in New Delhi blamed a westerly disturbance for the deep freeze which they said should start easing over the next couple of days.

"The worst is over from the cold point of view," said one weather official, but added that warming temperatures could trigger more avalanches.