PESHAWAR, June 30: Hundreds of villagers were stranded in the Sonoghur village on Saturday, a day after a large chunk of glacier broke loose in a remote area of Chitral district because of heavy rains. At least 20 houses and a mosque were buried under the sliding glacier. No loss of life was reported. Villagers told Dawn that the glacier was still moving towards low-lying areas.Sonoghur village is 140kms north of Chitral. People in about 300 houses there have been evacuated. Stranded villagers need food and drinking water. Reports suggested that relief activity in the affected village could not be initiated because of its inaccessibility. Bridges on the only road leading to the remote village were swept away by hill torrents a couple of days ago.
Many others were marooned in the Battagram and Mansehra districts after landslides cut off major roads. Seven bodies were recovered on Saturday from the Khyber Agency, near Peshawar. Five of the dead were identified as Afghans and their bodies were dispatched to Afghanistan. Meanwhile, over 100 NGO officials are stranded in the Allai area of Battagram district and the Kaghan Valley in Mansehra district. Landslides in various areas of both the districts have rendered roads unmotorable.