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.
An avalanche at Babusar Pass kills five members of Tablighi Jamaat religious organization.