ABBOTTABAD – Five members of a Tableeghi Jamaat were buried alive when a snow avalanche hit their jeep at the Babusar top near Chillas on Wednesday. The group had gone from Chillas to Babusar on a recreational trip to the

ABBOTTABAD – Five members of a Tableeghi Jamaat were buried alive when a snow avalanche hit their jeep at the Babusar top near Chillas on Wednesday.

The group had gone from Chillas to Babusar on a recreational trip to the northern side of Pakistan. Their vehicle was hit by an avalanche while they were returning from the 13,600-foot-high Babusar Top.

Locals as well as Rescue 1122 started rescue operations immediately and were able to pull out one person alive after digging through the debris.

The operation was suspended after the nightfall and the five devotees were declared dead. The names of the victims couldn’t be ascertained but Police said most of the victims were outsiders.

Officials say the efforts are underway to clear the road by removing snow from the road.

The Babusar Pass connects Gilgit-Baltistan with Naran and Kaghan valleys, and is blanketed by snow at this time of the year. It is a scenic place, visited by thousands of tourists every year. </s> At least 84 reported dead in avalanches, house collapses across eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan.

Scores of people have been killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by heavy snow and avalanches that hit mountainous areas in the region, officials said.

In eastern Afghanistan, at least 50 people were killed and dozens more remain missing after an avalanche buried a village in Nuristan province, provincial governor Hafiz Abdul Qayum said, leaving many homeless.

"Most affected are women and children," he said, adding that many houses collapsed, killing at least five people and leaving many families without shelter.

"The area is completely blocked because of snow so it is very difficult for us to send support, but we are trying our best."

Qayum said local rescue operations continued at the site, adding the death toll might increase.

In the northern Afghan province of Badakhshan, at least 19 people were killed and 17 injured in avalanches, collapsed roofs and road accidents over the last two days, Naweed Frotan, a government spokesperson, said.

The government was still struggling to reach at least 12 districts in Badakhshan province that had been completely cut off, Qayum said.

Heavy snow also blanketed the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, forcing government offices to close across the city.

In neighbouring Pakistan, at least nine people, including at least three children, were killed early on Sunday morning when an avalanche in the northwestern Chitral district destroyed 22 houses, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in a statement.

Three people were injured in avalanche, with one in critical condition, the statement said.

"Rescue operations at the site have finished for now," Gul Hammad Farooqi, a local journalist in Chitral, said.

"They were carried out by the local population, because no one was able to reach the site, even by helicopter."

No more residents of the village were currently being reported missing, Farooqi said, citing senior local officials.

Roads to the remote Shershal village, where the avalanche occurred, remained blocked due to the snowfall, and rescue crews were forced to rush to the surrounding areas by helicopter, the NDMA said.

In a separate incident in the Chitral region, a paramilitary soldier was killed and six others were injured when their post collapsed under an avalanche in the Pisotan area, Pakistan's military said in a statement.

The surviving soldiers had been rescued, the statement said.

Parts of the Chitral valley received more than five feet of snow in the previous 24 hours, Pakistan’s Meteorological Department said in a statement on Sunday, with scattered snowfall forecast for Monday.

The snow wreaked havoc on major roads in Afghanistan, including the main Kabul-Kandahar highway, where police and soldiers rescued passengers in about 250 vehicles trapped by the storm, said Jawed Salangi, a spokesman for Ghazni province.

The Salang pass, north of Kabul, was also closed under as much as two and a half metres of snow, officials said.

In Pakistan, all inter-district roads in Chitral were closed, while a major highway linking Chitral to the Dir district, and another linking parts of the upper Swat valley were only open to traffic under restrictions, NDMA said. </s> Image copyright EPA Image caption Rescue workers are trying to reach the avalanche-hit areas of Chitral, Pakistan

Heavy snow and avalanches have killed more than 106 people and injured dozens in Afghanistan.

In the deadliest incident, 53 people died in one village after an avalanche in Nuristan, a north-eastern Afghan province on the Pakistan border.

Thirteen people were also killed in an avalanche in northern Pakistan, nine of them in the town of Chitral.

Dozens of houses have been destroyed and people were reported to have frozen to death, trapped in cars.

Afghanistan's minister of state natural disasters, Wais Ahmad Barmak, confirmed the number of dead to BBC Afghan. There were also avalanches to the north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

"Avalanches have buried two entire villages," a spokesman for the ministry told news agency AFP of the Barg Matal area in Nuristan.

The neighbouring mountainous province of Badakhshan was also badly hit by snow storms.

Rescuers are experiencing difficulty reaching trapped people, because of bad weather and snow-blocked roads.

Provincial Council member Khalilullah Ghayor told BBC Afghan that two helicopters will be deployed to the area to look for survivors and deliver aid.

The main international airport in Kabul has also been closed because of snow and ice on the runway.

On the Kabul-Kandahar highway, police and soldiers rescued some 250 vehicles that were trapped.

The Salang pass north of Kabul was also closed under as much as 2.5m (7ft) of snow, local police chief Rajab Salangi said, according to Reuters news agency.

At least two stranded drivers have frozen to death. Dozens are marooned there without food.

Officials are warning of more avalanches as snow storms are continuing. </s> Avalanches across Central Asia have claimed several lives in recent days.

Daler Abdulloev, a spokesman for Tajikistan's Innovative Road Solutions (IRS) company, which helps maintain the country's roadways, told RFE/RL that three workers had been killed by an avalanche on February 19.

Two other people were missing and many roads have been closed due to avalanches in the mountainous country.

In neighboring Kyrgyzstan, the Emergency Situations Ministry's press service told RFE/RL that two children and a woman were killed by avalanches in two separate incidents on February 19.

At least 10 people were hospitalized, some in serious condition.

On February 17, an avalanche killed seven army service personnel in neighboring Kazakhstan's southern region of Zhambyl. </s> At least 25 people have been killed by snowstorms and avalanches in northern Afghanistan, more than a week after more than 100 people died due to heavy snowfall across the country, according to an official.

Northern Faryab province bore the brunt of freezing temperatures and heavy snow on Sunday.

Ammanullah Zafar, director for security in Faryab, told Anadolu news agency that Kohistan district was the worst hit.

"We can confirm that 25 people have died in this unprecedented heavy snow," he said.

READ MORE: Scores dead in heavy snowfall in Afghanistan, Pakistan

Zafar said police along with National Disasters Management Authority teams were trying hard with their limited resources to save the lives of several residents in the area, particularly the stranded passengers on the inter-district highways and the people stuck up in the mountains.

"We have received reports about people missing from Pashtoonkot, Andkhoy, Qurmkul, Balcheragh and Dawlat Abad districts; efforts are under way to locate and rescue people," Zafar said.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans, particularly the internally displaced persons and the recently repatriated refugees from Pakistan, remain vulnerable to the harsh winter in the country that relies heavily on aid.

On February 6, Afghanistan's northeastern Nuristan province was hit hardest by heavy snowfall and avalanches that wreaked havoc and claimed about 106 lives in the region, officials said.

Dozens of houses were destroyed and some of the victims had reportedly frozen to death.

"Avalanches have buried two entire villages," a spokesperson for the ministry of state natural disasters told the AFP news agency of the Barg Matal area in Nuristan.

At least 13 people were also killed by the disasters in the Pakistani town of Chitral.

Neighbouring Pakistan has seen a lesser death toll. </s> KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan official says at least 107 people have been killed in recent days by avalanches caused by heavy snow in different parts of the country, nearly doubling an earlier death toll estimate of 54.

Omer Mohammadi, spokesman for the Afghan state minister for disaster management and humanitarian affairs, said Monday that more than 65 others have been injured and more than 150 homes destroyed by the avalanches.

Many of the newest fatalities come from Nuristan province, near the Pakistani border, where two villages were buried in snow. Mohammadi said that rescue teams have so far recovered 48 bodies from those villages. </s> Avalanches triggered by warm weather following heavy snowfall have killed at least seven people in Tajikistan's mountainous south.

A spokeswoman for Tajikistan's Emergencies Committee, Umeda Yusufova, told RFE/RL on January 30 that the death toll may rise as rescue teams continue working on the Dushanbe-Khujand highway and in the Gorno-Badakhshan region, where more than 40 major avalanches were registered over the weekend.

Officials said some 500 people stranded in their cars after avalanches blocked the highway were rescued on January 28.

Mountains cover 93 percent of the Central Asian nation, and avalanches and mudslides kill dozens of people every year. </s> Afghan men climb up a snow covered hillside as youths play on the frozen surface of Qargha Lake on the outskirts of Kabul on February 10, 2017. Twenty-five people were killed by snowstorms and avalanches in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, just days after more than 100 people died due to heavy snowfall across the country, according to an official.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Al Bawaba. </s> Heavy snowfall and freezing weather has killed 27 children, all under the age of five, in a remote district in northern Afghanistan, officials said on Thursday fearing that the toll could rise.

Roads in Darzaab in northern Jawzjan province were blocked by 50 centimetres (20 inches) of snow, cutting off access for villagers in the area to medical care as temperatures plunged to -10 degrees Celsius.

District governor Rahmatullah Hashar said the deaths had occurred over the last two or three days. All the children were under the age of five, he said, adding the blocked roads mean the toll could still increase.

The deaths were confirmed by the Jawzjan provincial governor’s spokesman, Reza Ghafoori, who said aid will be delivered via emergency committees.

Heavy snowfall and avalanches kill scores of people in Afghanistan every winter.

In 2015, avalanches killed around 300 people across the country -- mostly in the mountainous province of Panjshir, north of Kabul.

Rescue efforts after disasters such as avalanches and flash floods, which often hit as snows melt in the spring, are frequently hampered by lack of equipment. Poor infrastructure makes it difficult for rescue teams to reach isolated areas.
An avalanche at Babusar Pass kills five members of Tablighi Jamaat religious organization.