Landslides kill 58 in Bangladesh
Landslides triggered by heavy rain in southeast Bangladesh buried dozens of houses and an army camp on Tuesday, killing at least 58 people, officials said.
The landslides hit villages in the Cox’s Bazar hill and resort district, where officials said they recorded 25 cm of rainfall in 24 hours to 9 am on Tuesday.
“Among the dead were at least six Army soldiers camping on a hillside at Himchhari, and four are missing,” one senior Cox’s Bazar official said.
“The death toll may go further up as rescuers are searching for bodies.”
Heavy rain was still pounding Cox’s Bazar and nearby districts as well as offshore islands in the Bay of Bengal, officials said.
Low-lying areas have been flooded and communications disrupted, witnesses said.
Landslides hit hillside villages in south and northeastern districts almost every year during the monsoon season. At least 130 people died in the worst landslide in the port city of Chittagong in June 2007.
In the last few years, Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest and most densely populated countries, has seen an increase in intensity and frequency of climate-related problems.
A cyclone in 1991 killed about 1,40,000 people and another in late 2007 killed over 3,300.
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Bombing, clashes kill 18 in Afghan
Kabul, June 15: Clashes with militants after a string of attacks in Afghanistan have killed 12 police officers while six civilians died in bombings, authorities said on Tuesday.
The Taliban have declared a summer offensive against Nato forces and those allied with the coalition or the Afghan government — ramping up attacks as Nato troops prepare operations in the Taliban heartland of southern Kandahar province.
The civilians were killed in two attacks — one a remote-controlled explosive that killed four people in southern Helmand province, and the second a roadside bomb that killed two others in western Herat province, the interior ministry said.
The police deaths occurred in a number of incidents in the east and south. Militants attacked a police checkpoint in eastern Ghazni province before dawn on Tuesday, killing five officers and wounding one. —AP
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