...mindless ferocity in a turban...official said.
Scores of Afghans cross illegally to Pakistain every day through the porous mountain border in search of jobs or to buy essential goods for trade.
Najibullah Hassan Abdal, head of information for eastern Kunar province
... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country.....
, told AFP rescue workers were still searching at the scene of the avalanche.
"Nineteen bodies have been recovered already," he said.
Illegal traffic across the Pakistain-Afghan border has soared since the Taliban returned to power in August, plunging the country into a severe crisis with tens of thousands of people made jobless.
Pakistain is fencing the entire 2,670 kilometre (1,660 mile) frontier, known as the Durand line for the British colonial administrator who first drew it.
Traders and smugglers have for centuries used well-trodden remote mountain passes to criss-cross the territories and cheat on taxes.
But deadly avalanches are common in the area.
In 2015, more than 250 people were killed across the country in a series of devastating avalanches.