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PESHAWAR: Rescue workers on Tuesday recovered more bodies from a mountain village in northwest Pakistan where flash floods triggered by a cloudburst brought down homes and buildings, bringing the death toll there to at least 20, the local district commissioner said.

The toll contributed to a total of 358 deaths in the floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province since Friday – more than 200 of them in the worst hit district of Buner.

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority says 30 children are among the dead.

A cloudburst is a rare phenomenon where more than 100 mm (4 inches) of rain falls within an hour in a small area, officials say. Authorities have warned of more rains to come in two spells of monsoon until September 10.

In Buner, there was more than 150 mm of rain within an hour on Friday morning. A massive downpour from another cloudburst struck near Gadoon in the mountains of Swabi district, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Monday.

District Commissioner Nisar Khan said that as well as the death toll there increasing from 11 on Monday, several residents remained missing from the remote village.

“We are utilising all available resources, including heavy machinery such as excavators, to recover the missing bodies,” he said.

The raging flood water came down from the mountains and swept away the houses, he said.

The intense rain has claimed lives and spread destruction in several northwestern districts, with most people killed in flash floods, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.

More relief equipment including tents, blankets, electric generators, pumps, medicine and rations have been sent to the flood-affected areas, the National Disaster Management Authority said on Tuesday.

It said the torrential rains and flooding this monsoon season have killed 695 people across Pakistan since late June. 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Tuesday a group of British-Pakistani lawyers has committed to form a task force to mobilize legal and diplomatic support for the country’s right to the continued flow of river waters after India announced it was suspending participation in the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) earlier this year.

The IWT, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, divides control of the Indus basin rivers between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. New Delhi decided to hold the treaty “in abeyance” after a gun attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in April that killed more than 26 tourists, for which it accused Pakistan.

Islamabad denied any involvement, calling New Delhi’s decision both illegal and “an act of war.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who is currently visiting the United Kingdom where he has met officials to deepen bilateral ties, addressed the British-Pakistani Lawyers Forum where he also highlighted the issue.

“In his address, the DPM/FM emphasized that the 1960 World Bank brokered agreement, which governs 80 percent of Pakistan’s freshwater resources and sustains the lives of 240 million people, cannot be unilaterally suspended or held in abeyance,” the foreign office said. “He underscored the treaty’s critical importance to Pakistan’s water security and ecological stability.”

“The attending lawyers unanimously condemned India’s actions as a form of ‘water warfare,’ and committed to establishing a UK-based legal task force,” it added. “The task force will focus on defending Pakistan’s rights under the treaty and mobilizing international legal and diplomatic support.”

India and Pakistan fought a four-day war in May in the wake of the militant attack in Kashmir, using fighter jets, drones, missiles and artillery under the nuclear shadow, before US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire on May 10.

Pakistan has consistently raised the IWT issue at international forums, calling India’s suspension unilateral and illegal and noting that the treaty does not allow either side to withdraw.