Heavy torrential rains have unleashed flash floods in local streams and water channels across Buner, causing a dangerous surge in water flow and creating panic among residents.
According to the district administration, the worsening situation has prompted the issuance of a high alert to manage potential emergencies and ensure public safety. Rainwater has already entered local market areas, forcing shopkeepers and residents to evacuate to safer locations.
Deputy Commissioner Buner confirmed that the ongoing downpour has significantly increased the risk of further flooding in the area. He said emergency measures are being implemented to safeguard lives and property, while authorities remain on high alert and continue to closely monitor the situation.
The administration has urged citizens to remain cautious and cooperate with rescue and relief teams as the heavy rainfall persists.
EDITOR’S NOTE:This story contains a disturbing image.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have called for international help after a huge earthquake killed hundreds of people and leveled entire villages, piling further misery on the war-ravaged country that was already grappling with food shortages and cuts to foreign aid.
At least 1,411 were killed and 3,124 others injured after the 6.0-magnitude quake struck towns and villages close to the Pakistan border on Sunday, causing strong aftershocks in Kabul, according to Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Tuesday.The devastating earthquake has also destroyed more than 5,400 homes, Mujahid added.
Heavy rain, landslides and damaged roads have made it difficult for relief teams to access the remote mountainous areas hit hardest by the quake.
Meanwhile, recent US aid cuts have crunched relief efforts in the country, which has been contending with shrinking global aid since the Taliban seized control in 2021, imposing harsh rules and punishments on the nation’s 43 million people.
Here’s what we know about the earthquake and the rescue operation.
The earthquake hit just before midnight 27 kilometers (16.77 miles) north-east of Jalalabad, a bustling city of about 200,000 people in Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan, in a mountainous area known for its seismic activity, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The quake was relatively shallow with a depth of about 8 kilometers (4.97 miles), according to the USGS. Shallow earthquakes tend to be more destructive.
The earthquake devastated neighboring Kunar province, razing three villages, Reuters reported, citing local authorities. Damage and injuries were also reported in Laghman, Nuristan and Panjshir provinces, according to the Taliban government and humanitarian workers.
The earthquake was also felt in several cities in neighboring Pakistan, the Pakistan Meteorological Department said in a statement.
The region was hit by at least five aftershocks, the strongest measuring 5.2-magnitude in the hours after the initial quake, according to USGS.
This is the third major quake to hit since 2021 in Afghanistan, which faces a litany of man-made and natural disasters, including poverty, conflict, drought, and the forced return of millions of refugees by neighbors Pakistan and Iran.
Powerful earthquakes in 2022 and 2023 killed more than 3,000 people in Afghanistan’s Paktika and Herat provinces, by some estimates.
Nearly half a million people likely felt strong to very strong shaking, which can result in considerable damage to poorly built structures, according to the USGS.
Yousaf Hammad, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, said the number of dead and injured is likely to rise.
“The injured are being evacuated, so these figures may change significantly,” he told the AP.
Photos from the aftermath showed rows of brick houses swept under muddy debris, as residents clambered over huge piles of fallen concrete.
Eyewitnesses recalled fumbling for loved ones stuck under collapsed homes, as they waited hours for emergency workers to reach the worst-affected regions, according to the AP.
“I was half-buried and unable to get out,” Sadiqullah, a resident of Nurgal, in Kunar province, told AP. His wife and two sons were killed, he added.
Ahmad Zameer, 41, a resident of Kabul, more than 100 miles from the epicenter, told CNN the earthquake jolted his neighborhood. He added that everyone from the nearby apartment buildings rushed into the street in fear of being trapped inside.
Videos obtained by CNN show men digging with shovels to search for survivors under the rubble in Kunar province. Others showed chaotic scenes as officials worked to stretcher the wounded onto helicopters to be airlifted to hospital.
The war-ravaged nation is in the throes of a humanitarian crisis that has only worsened since the Taliban seized power in 2021 following a chaotic United States withdrawal.
Many international aid groups, wary of collaborating with a repressive regime known for its persecution of women and girls, have since pulled out of the country.
Earlier this year, the White House halted more than $1.7 billion worth of American aid contracts supporting dozens of programs in Afghanistan. The United Kingdom, France and Germany swiftly followed suit.
Humanitarian aid to Afghanistan shrank to $767 million in 2025, down from $3.8 billion in 2022, according to Reuters.
Thamindri De Silva, National Director of World Vision Afghanistan, said the sheer number of challenges facing the country has made it difficult for humanitarian organizations to support Afghans.
“This is not the first shock that we’ve faced this year. We’re undergoing a drought. We’re supporting the returnee response. We’re still working with the earthquake-affected people in Herat. There’s a huge malnutrition crisis in the country,” De Silva told CNN’s Lynda Kinkade.
“So it’s not just the funding shortfalls, it’s the compounding of shock after shock in the country, which is stretching already very thin resources.”
Body bags are one of the greatest needs in terms of supplies, she said, as well as basic necessities, such as clothing, hygiene products, and cooking equipment.
The Taliban have appealed to the world for more aid to support relief efforts, but so far, few countries have stepped up.
“We need it because here lots of people lost their lives and houses,” health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman told Reuters.
The United Arab Emirates has dispatched food, medical supplies and tents to quake-stricken regions in Afghanistan – as well as a search and rescue team, state-run Emirate News Agency, WAM, reported on Monday.
The UK on Tuesday announced £1 million ($1.3 million) in new emergency funding to support families affected by the earthquake, to be split between the UN Population Fund and the International Red Cross.
“The UK remains grateful to the aid workers on the ground, who help us to provide support to Afghanistan’s most vulnerable people,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a statement.
European leaders donated $1.16 million (€1 million) of humanitarian emergency funding, as well as tents, clothes, medical supplies and other aid stocks to the region, the European Commission said on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said it was ready to provide disaster relief assistance “according to Afghanistan’s needs and within its capacity,” Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, India delivered 1,000 family tents to Kabul and 15 metric tons of food aid to Kunar, with more relief to come, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said according to Reuters.
The US State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs extended “heartfelt condolences to the Afghan people” in a post to X, but there was no immediate word of aid from the US.
GUJRAT: The Sialkot International Airport is open to flight operations after remaining suspended for five days due to flooding.
According to the officials, though the flight operations were restored by 6pm on Monday, the floodwater from Chenab is still accumulated in the parking area. There were no flights scheduled on Monday.
An official told Dawn that the passengers would be taken to the airport terminal by buses from the main entry point outside the airport as the vehicles couldn’t be parked in the flooded parking lot.
The airport management as well as the Sialkot administration joined hands to drain the floodwater out.
The suspension of flights had caused disturbance to the air passengers from Gujranwala region as the airlines had shifted their passengers to Lahore, Faisalabad and Islamabad airports.
The Sialkot airport spokesperson Umair Khan said the main airport terminal building, runway, taxiway as well as the equipment remained secure in the flood.
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has decided to proceed with its largest project of the Belt and Road Initiative with a loan from the Asian Development Bank now that Beijing has retreated due to mounting concerns over unpaid power sector dues and security challenges.
ISLAMABAD: As torrential monsoon rains inundate villages and farmlands across Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, an army of volunteers from national and international charities is racing against rising waters to pull stranded families to safety, deliver food to marooned communities and erect makeshift shelters for the hundreds of thousands uprooted by the floods.
Punjab, the country’s most populous and breadbasket province, has been facing a flood-emergency, fueled by above-normal rains and India’s release of excess water, which has affected more than 2.4 million people and killed 41 people in the last 10 days, according to the provincial disaster management authority (PDMA).
Floodwaters have submerged more than 3,100 villages, forcing authorities and charity organizations to relocate over 900,000 people and around 600,000 livestock to safety. Nationwide, rains, floods and landslides have killed at least 863 people since June 26 when the monsoon season first began.
The Al-Khidmat Foundation (AKF), one of the largest Pakistani charitable organizations, says it has sent 10,000 volunteers, along with motorboats and necessary logistics, to flood-affected areas in Punjab, where they have been rescuing marooned communities and livestock and taking care of them at temporary shelters.
“In Ganda Singh Wala, we have rescued and relocated around 30,000 people and 76,000 livestock to safe places,” AKF President Ikram-ul-Haq Subhani told Arab News, adding that these people were being provided with cooked food, clothes and other basic necessities.
“An AKF fleet of 40 ambulances is providing services in the affected districts of Punjab, along with three mobile health units and several medical camps.”
Last week’s deluges have submerged vast swathes of farmland and washed away homes that could run into billions of rupees, though proper estimates would only come during the rehabilitation process as the focus right now remains on rescue and relief, according to the AKF president.
“So far, we have spent more than Rs250 million ($889,680) but would need more especially in the rehabilitation phase,” said Subhani, whose organization has around 76,000 registered volunteers, of which, 6,000 are trained in rescue activities and leading teams in Punjab’s flooded areas.
Evacuations are also taking place in Punjab’s far-off regions that border the Sindh province in the south, where authorities have warned of a possible “super flood” in the Indus river if water levels top 900,000 cubic feet per second.
Weather authorities have forecast more rain this week in parts of Punjab and the federal capital of Islamabad where a downpour inundated several neighborhoods on Monday, leaving roads under water and vehicles stranded. Officials say the flood situation may aggravate if the showers continued.
Raza Narejo, country director of the UK-based Islamic Relief humanitarian organization, said the floodwaters were now moving toward southern Punjab, where the scale and magnitude of devastation is expected to be “significant.”
“So, keeping these anticipations and estimations in view, we have so far just figured out £15 million ($20.31 million) response in Punjab, but it can be drastically changed,” he told Arab News.
Narejo said Islamic Relief aims to reach more than 300,000 individuals and over 30,000 families in the immediate phase, but the numbers may go up as the situation unfolds.
“We are making sure that immediate needs, particularly in terms of water and cooked food, should be taken care of and we are further focusing upon, since they have been displaced, that how we can take care of their hygiene needs and how we can take care of their non-food items,” he said.
“We are looking at £5 million ($6.77 million) life-saving response and £10 million ($13.54 million) recovery, rehabilitation response, and the amount which we have spent so far that is £700,000 ($0.95 million).”
Once the floodwaters recede, Narejo said, Islamic Relief will conduct another assessment to determine the damages to crops, land, and properties, and it will plan for the recovery and rehabilitation needs of the affected people accordingly.
Syed Muhammad Owais, a spokesperson in Pakistan of another UK-based charity Muslim Hands, said his organization has stepped up its humanitarian response in Punjab’s Wazirabad, Multan and Sialkot districts, following relief work in the northwestern Buner district where cloudburst-induced floods killed dozens last month.
“Muslim Hands relief teams are on the ground, distributing hot meals and dry food packs to ensure that vulnerable communities do not go hungry,” he told Arab News.
Owais said the humanitarian organization was working in close coordination with national and provincial disaster authorities and district administrations to reach out to the most-affected villages.
“Medical aid has also been provided to those suffering from injuries and waterborne diseases, offering timely treatment in areas where health care access has been disrupted,” he said, adding that continuing rains created challenges in reaching remote areas but their coordination with authorities helped them overcome this issue.
Alongside local and international charities, United Nations (UN) agencies like UN Women have also stepped in to help affected people, focusing on the wellbeing of displaced women in the hardest-hit communities.
“Firstly, regarding the ongoing activities in the flood-affected areas, UN Women, as the Chair of the Gender Task Force, is actively collaborating with the NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority) and their provincial counterparts to ensure that gender issues are regularly integrated into current flood preparedness and response efforts,” Erum Fareed, a communication officer at UN Women in Pakistan, told Arab News.
“UN Women is applying a Humanitarian-Peace-Development (HPD) nexus approach in its programming to enhance women’s resilience and leadership in crisis situations,” she said. “Currently, UN Women aims to reach around 6,500 flood-affected individuals addressing the prioritized needs of women and girls.”
Dr. José Ignacio Martín Galán, head of communications at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Pakistan, said their teams were continuing to support federal and provincial authorities in meeting health needs and saving lives in response to climate-driven floods across the country.
“As part of the Monsoon Contingency Plan 2025, WHO has supported Pakistan and partners to prepare the provision of emergency health assistance to 1.3 million vulnerable people across 33 priority districts when necessary,” he told Arab News, added the organization was focusing on the most affected areas and the 89 health facilities damaged during these floods.
Last week, a spokesperson for UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres also confirmed the release of $600,000 in emergency relief funds for Pakistan after devastating floods.
Monsoon season brings Pakistan up to 80 percent of its annual rainfall, but increasingly erratic and extreme weather patterns are turning the annual rains, which are vital for agriculture, food security and the livelihoods of millions of farmers, into a destructive force.
In May, at least 32 people were killed in severe storms, while a third of the country was submerged by devastating floods in 2022 that killed more than 1,700 people, affected over 30 million and caused an estimated $35 billion in damages.
ISLAMABAD: As torrential monsoon rains inundate villages and farmlands across Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, an army of volunteers from national and international charities is racing against rising waters to pull stranded families to safety, deliver food to marooned communities and erect makeshift shelters for the hundreds of thousands uprooted by the floods.
Punjab, the country’s most populous and breadbasket province, has been facing a flood-emergency, fueled by above-normal rains and India’s release of excess water, which has affected more than 2.4 million people and killed 41 people in the last 10 days, according to the provincial disaster management authority (PDMA).
Floodwaters have submerged more than 3,100 villages, forcing authorities and charity organizations to relocate over 900,000 people and around 600,000 livestock to safety. Nationwide, rains, floods and landslides have killed at least 863 people since June 26 when the monsoon season first began.
The Al-Khidmat Foundation (AKF), one of the largest Pakistani charitable organizations, says it has sent 10,000 volunteers, along with motorboats and necessary logistics, to flood-affected areas in Punjab, where they have been rescuing marooned communities and livestock and taking care of them at temporary shelters.
“In Ganda Singh Wala, we have rescued and relocated around 30,000 people and 76,000 livestock to safe places,” AKF President Ikram-ul-Haq Subhani told Arab News, adding that these people were being provided with cooked food, clothes and other basic necessities.
“An AKF fleet of 40 ambulances is providing services in the affected districts of Punjab, along with three mobile health units and several medical camps.”
Last week’s deluges have submerged vast swathes of farmland and washed away homes that could run into billions of rupees, though proper estimates would only come during the rehabilitation process as the focus right now remains on rescue and relief, according to the AKF president.
“So far, we have spent more than Rs250 million ($889,680) but would need more especially in the rehabilitation phase,” said Subhani, whose organization has around 76,000 registered volunteers, of which, 6,000 are trained in rescue activities and leading teams in Punjab’s flooded areas.
Evacuations are also taking place in Punjab’s far-off regions that border the Sindh province in the south, where authorities have warned of a possible “super flood” in the Indus river if water levels top 900,000 cubic feet per second.
Weather authorities have forecast more rain this week in parts of Punjab and the federal capital of Islamabad where a downpour inundated several neighborhoods on Monday, leaving roads under water and vehicles stranded. Officials say the flood situation may aggravate if the showers continued.
Raza Narejo, country director of the UK-based Islamic Relief humanitarian organization, said the floodwaters were now moving toward southern Punjab, where the scale and magnitude of devastation is expected to be “significant.”
“So, keeping these anticipations and estimations in view, we have so far just figured out £15 million ($20.31 million) response in Punjab, but it can be drastically changed,” he told Arab News.
Narejo said Islamic Relief aims to reach more than 300,000 individuals and over 30,000 families in the immediate phase, but the numbers may go up as the situation unfolds.
“We are making sure that immediate needs, particularly in terms of water and cooked food, should be taken care of and we are further focusing upon, since they have been displaced, that how we can take care of their hygiene needs and how we can take care of their non-food items,” he said.
“We are looking at £5 million ($6.77 million) life-saving response and £10 million ($13.54 million) recovery, rehabilitation response, and the amount which we have spent so far that is £700,000 ($0.95 million).”
Once the floodwaters recede, Narejo said, Islamic Relief will conduct another assessment to determine the damages to crops, land, and properties, and it will plan for the recovery and rehabilitation needs of the affected people accordingly.
Syed Muhammad Owais, a spokesperson in Pakistan of another UK-based charity Muslim Hands, said his organization has stepped up its humanitarian response in Punjab’s Wazirabad, Multan and Sialkot districts, following relief work in the northwestern Buner district where cloudburst-induced floods killed dozens last month.
“Muslim Hands relief teams are on the ground, distributing hot meals and dry food packs to ensure that vulnerable communities do not go hungry,” he told Arab News.
Owais said the humanitarian organization was working in close coordination with national and provincial disaster authorities and district administrations to reach out to the most-affected villages.
“Medical aid has also been provided to those suffering from injuries and waterborne diseases, offering timely treatment in areas where health care access has been disrupted,” he said, adding that continuing rains created challenges in reaching remote areas but their coordination with authorities helped them overcome this issue.
Alongside local and international charities, United Nations (UN) agencies like UN Women have also stepped in to help affected people, focusing on the wellbeing of displaced women in the hardest-hit communities.
“Firstly, regarding the ongoing activities in the flood-affected areas, UN Women, as the Chair of the Gender Task Force, is actively collaborating with the NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority) and their provincial counterparts to ensure that gender issues are regularly integrated into current flood preparedness and response efforts,” Erum Fareed, a communication officer at UN Women in Pakistan, told Arab News.
“UN Women is applying a Humanitarian-Peace-Development (HPD) nexus approach in its programming to enhance women’s resilience and leadership in crisis situations,” she said. “Currently, UN Women aims to reach around 6,500 flood-affected individuals addressing the prioritized needs of women and girls.”
Dr. José Ignacio Martín Galán, head of communications at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Pakistan, said their teams were continuing to support federal and provincial authorities in meeting health needs and saving lives in response to climate-driven floods across the country.
“As part of the Monsoon Contingency Plan 2025, WHO has supported Pakistan and partners to prepare the provision of emergency health assistance to 1.3 million vulnerable people across 33 priority districts when necessary,” he told Arab News, added the organization was focusing on the most affected areas and the 89 health facilities damaged during these floods.
Last week, a spokesperson for UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres also confirmed the release of $600,000 in emergency relief funds for Pakistan after devastating floods.
Monsoon season brings Pakistan up to 80 percent of its annual rainfall, but increasingly erratic and extreme weather patterns are turning the annual rains, which are vital for agriculture, food security and the livelihoods of millions of farmers, into a destructive force.
In May, at least 32 people were killed in severe storms, while a third of the country was submerged by devastating floods in 2022 that killed more than 1,700 people, affected over 30 million and caused an estimated $35 billion in damages.
Some earthquake-hit local families were recently deported by Pakistan – local mediapublished at 03:54 British Summer Time
03:54 BST
Some families affected by the earthquake had just recently been deported from Pakistan, according to local news outlet Tolo News.
Mohammad Aslam, who lives in Ghaziabad village in Kunar, said he’d lost five members of his family.
“The whole house collapsed on us. We lost five people – my father, two of my uncle’s sons, and two of my cousins’ children,” he told Tolo News, external.
It’s unclear what circumstances Aslam was in before being deported by Pakistan.
The quake-hit area of Kunar, which was hit by an earthquake late on Sunday, sits near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan.
According to the UN, Pakistan had earlier this year accelerated its drive to expel undocument Afghans. In March, NGO Human Rights Watch said, external Pakistani authorities had been “coercing” Afghan refugees to return to Afghanistan – despite the risk of persecution by the Taliban and dire economic conditions.
More than 3.5 million Afghans have been living in Pakistan, according to the UN’s refugee agency. Pakistan has taken in Afghans through decades of war, but the government says the high number of refugees now poses risks to national security and causes pressure on public services.
ISLAMABAD/QUETTA: As a new polio case was found in Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, taking the total number of cases detected this year to 24, a week-long special anti-polio campaign was launched in 26 of the 36 districts of Balochistan on Monday amid tight security.
The latest polio case involved a 20-month-old girl from Ping union council of Tank district, an official of NIH confirmed.
“This is the 14th polio case from southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province this year. With this detection, the total number of polio cases found in the country in 2025 reached 24. The break-up of the polio cases is: 16 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, six in Sindh, and one each in Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan,” the official said.
He said the victim belonged to Bettani tribe, adding that the case belonged to highly security compromised area not accessible for vaccination and no travel history was found.
Meanwhile, a week-long special polio campaign was launched in 26 of the 36 districts in Balochistan amid tight security. Provincial authorities have made strict security arrangements to ensure safety of the polio workers in view of the recent target killing of a supervisor of the Polio Programme in Chaman, a town bordering Afghanistan.
He was targeted by armed men in Roghani area of Chaman while taking part in creating awareness among the parents along with polio workers before launching the campaign in the area.
“We are providing tight security to our polio workers in all the 26 districts where polio staff was administering polio drops and vaccination,” a senior official told Dawn, adding that during the week-long campaign more than 2.18 million children under the age of five will be administered anti-polio drops.
The Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Balochistan Coordinator Inam-ul-Haq while announcing the campaign programme said that during the drive in the province more than 2.18 million children under the age of five will be administered anti-polio drops.
Calling the campaign, a crucial step in the fight against poliovirus, Mr Haq urged parents to ensure their children receive the vaccine, warning that failure to do so could result in lifelong disability.
“All preparations have been finalised, and vaccination teams have been fully mobilised in both urban and remote areas of the province,” he said.
The campaign was launched in Quetta, Pishin, Qilla Abdullah, Chaman, Barkhan, Dera Bugti, Hub, Jaffarabad, Jhal Magsi, Kalat, Khuzdar, Qilla Saifullah, Loralai, Mastung, Noshki, Nasirabad, Sherani, Sibi, Sohbatpur, Usta Mohammad, Zhob, Musakhail, Chagai, Duki, Lasbela, and Ziarat.
A total of 11,659 teams will take part in the drive, including 9,129 mobile teams, 958 fixed-site teams, and 586 transit teams deployed at bus terminals, railway stations, and other key locations. Mr Haq stressed that the success of the campaign depends heavily on the community support. He appealed to civil society members, teachers and religious leaders to help raise awareness about polio among the masses and encourage families to get their children vaccinated.
Alongside the polio campaign, he also reminded parents of the importance of routine immunisation, which protects children against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, and diphtheria.
He urged families to visit their nearest health centers to ensure their children receive all scheduled vaccines on time.
