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.