PESHAWAR, 4 July 2006 — At least 17 people were killed yesterday when a landslide triggered by heavy monsoon rains hit a village in northwestern Pakistan, officials said.
Huge boulders and tons of earth buried at least three mud-brick houses in Gahel village near the hill resort of Kalam, some 200 kilometers north of the provincial capital Peshawar, police said. “We have recovered 17 bodies including 11 of women,” police official Yar Mohammad told AFP by telephone from Kalam. Five people, including three children, were pulled out alive from the rubble, he added.
The landslide was caused by torrential rains that lashed the area at the weekend, he said. The mayor of Kalam, Jamal Nasir, said the casualties may still go up as several people were reported missing.
A rain-swollen mountainside canal also burst yesterday flooding the village, police said. The canal, feeding a small, water-driven electricity generator, flows above Gahel.
Blast Kills Six Troops
Six Pakistani paramilitary troops were killed when their vehicle was hit by an explosion in the country’s northwest yesterday, police and hospital officials said.
The blast occurred when the vehicle was passing through Timergarah town in North West Frontier Province. The cause of the blast was not immediately known. “We have got confirmed reports of six soldiers dead and three wounded,” a local police official told Reuters. The troops were traveling to neighboring Dir district.
Kasuri to Visit France, US
Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri will leave for France and United States today for talks with leadership of the two countries on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues. “During the three-day visit to France, Kasuri will hold talks with his French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy,” a Foreign Ministry statement said in Islamabad.
Later, he will travel to Washington and hold talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on July 10. “The talks will focus on bilateral, regional and international issues with reference to the situation in Afghanistan and the current status of Pakistan-India peace process, also known as the composite dialogue,” said the statement. He is also scheduled to meet Steve Headley, US national security adviser, and leading US congressmen.
US Cancels Invitation
The US mission in northwest Pakistan withdrew an invitation to an Independence Day reception to the speaker of the provincial legislature because he allowed prayers for the slain leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, officials said yesterday.
