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NEW DELHI: India has protested to China over a China-Pakistan highway, saying the Karakoram transit passes through a part of territory in Jammu and Kashmir which is ‘illegally occupied’ by Pakistan, Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna told parliament on Thursday.

“India has clearly conveyed to China its consistent position that Pakistan was in illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir since 1947 following reports that China was building a rail line and highway in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,” the United News of India quoted Mr Krishna as telling the Rajya Sabha.

Mr Krishna’s written statement came in response to questions by deputies. He said that India had conveyed its concern to China and asked it to cease such activities.

China was regarding Kashmir as a bilateral matter to be settled between India and Pakistan, Mr Krishna said while answering the questions.

He said the government had seen reports to the effect that China was seeking to build a railway line and highway projects in PoK, New Delhi’s name for Azad Kashmir, and it had taken up the issue with them.

The government would keep a constant vigil on all developments having a bearing on India’s national interest and take all necessary measures to safeguard it, UNI quoted the minister as saying.

Answering a related question, Mr Krishna said India had taken up the reports of China building a dam on the upper reaches of Tsangpo/ Brahmaputra, known as Tsangpo in Tibet, with China during his visit to Beijing in April.

China had conveyed that it always had shown a responsible attitude towards trans-border rivers. The Chinese foreign minister had also clarified that the planned construction at Zangmu was that of a small power project and it would not store water or regulate the volume of water.

It, therefore, would not have any adverse impact on downstream flows, he added.

Mr Krishna said the two countries had established an expert-level mechanism to discuss cooperation on all issues regarding trans-bor-der rivers and it had held four meetings between September 2007 and April 2010

PESHAWAR: Torrential rains and flash floods continued to devastate life and property in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas on Thursday, killing dozens of people.

The death toll since Wednesday has risen to 113. More than 400,000 people have been affected.

The provincial government has declared a state of emergency and asked people living along the banks of the Swat and Kabul rivers and their tributaries in Peshawar and Charsadda districts to move to other areas.

Lack of resources and planning has put the lives of thousands of people at risk in Peshawar and Charsadda where the Kabul and Swat rivers converge.

The district administration appeared to be helpless in moving the stranded people to safe places.

Eighteen people were killed in Kohat, another 18 in Dera Ismail Khan, nine in Charsadda, seven in Mohmand Agency, two in Abbottabad and two in Karak and Tank. Over 1,000 houses were damaged in D.I. Khan, Tank and the adjacent Frontier Region. Water level at Chashma Barrage is also rising.

A large number of people have taken shelter in schools and mosques in Peshawar and are in dire need of clothes, food and water.

Flood water has inundated thousands of houses in the provincial capital. With no sign of any rescue and relief work, people are seething in anger.

“Around 70 families, mostly women and children, have taken shelter in the Government High School No 1 in Peshawar. They left their homes empty-handed when gushing flood water inundated their localities on Charssada Road,” said Amjid Khan, a social worker.

Traffic on the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway and on parts of the GT Road has been suspended.

Inter-Services Public Relations said that troops had been carrying out rescue and relief activities since Wednesday.

The situation in Malakand division was even more chaotic. Flash floods caused widespread devastations in Swat, washing away houses, bridges, hospitals, roads and communication networks.

Swat river was in high flood and the outflow at Munda Headwork was over 300,000 cusecs, according to the flood warning centre.

Officials in Swat could not be contacted because telephone lines have stopped functioning. Flood water has entered the Mingora bazaar.

Army was called in for evacuation work in Peshawar, Charsadda, Swat and other flood-hit areas.

Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain appealed to the federal government, international community and philanthropists to come forward and help the marooned people.

Addressing a press conference, he said the provincial government had released funds to districts and 50 boats were being brought by a C-130 aircraft from Karachi. The boats will reach Peshawar by Friday evening.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly session has been postponed for an indefinite period. Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour informed the house that 106 people had been killed across the province.

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority said that 200 Chinese nationals were stranded in Dobair valley of Kohistan district. Flood swept away two camps of a Chinese company in the area.

Witnesses said that Swat was in complete chaos. Amir Muhammad Khan, a social worker, told Dawn from Bahrian that flood had swept away a large number of shops, houses and hotels in the town and caused severe damage to the infrastructure.

People were living in the open and needed immediate evacuation and relief, he said. A large number of people were marooned in flooded localities because the flood water has submerged the main road between Bahrian and Mingora.

Mr Khan said the road between Madian and Bahrian had been severely damaged. People have taken shelter in mosques. Household goods and appliances have been washed away.

About 102 workers and security guards working at an irrigation project in Malakand have been stranded since Wednesday. Parts of Batkhela bazaar are under water.

About 47 people are reported to have been missing in Shangla district. Five bodies were found on Thursday.

Officials said that floods had washed away 297 houses, 46 bridges, five mosques and four schools and some basic health units and damaged telecommunication network, electricity lines, link roads and crops.

 Two residential colonies comprising 53 houses were destroyed in Alpuri, the district headquarters of Shangla.

ISLAMABAD: The seven-member investigative team has started the probe into the plane crash incident in Margalla Hills Islamabad, sources said sources.

The team is headed by the President Safety Investigation Board of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Air Commodore Khwaja M. Majeed.

The team has collected some evidence and sent it to the laboratory for examination while the record of last contact between pilot and Islamabad control tower has also been sealed.

The seven-member team included experts of technical and operational field and also a representative of Airblue.

The DIG operation Islamabad said that more dead bodies or body parts feared to be under plane debris.

Agencies Add: Monsoon rain and clouds on Thursday hampered the search for the black box of a Pakistani airliner that slammed into hilly woodland killing all 152 people on board, the nation’s worst aviation disaster.

The Airblue passenger jet crashed in a ball of flames, disintegrating in the forested Margalla Hills overlooking the Pakistani capital in heavy rain and poor visibility on Wednesday while trying to land after flying from Karachi.

Pakistan observed a day of mourning, but questions focused increasingly on why the pilot had been flying the Airbus 321 so low over the craggy hills in a restricted flight zone while making his approach to land.

Helicopters were grounded because of poor visibility, rain and clouds, and the black box had yet to be located, officials said.

Investigators hope the flight data recorder will give clues to the fate of the 10-year-old Airbus, which was piloted by an experienced captain.

Officials called off the search for human remains and civil aviation teams left the crash site around dusk.

“So far we could not find the black box, heavy rain continued at the crash site, the terrain is also very slippery,” Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Pervez George told AFP.

He could not say if the search would resume on Friday.

“It all depends on the weather. We are not sure when the weather will allow us to resume the search,” he said.

At least one relative arrived at the base camp Thursday saying he wanted to look for the remains of his brother, but was turned away.

“We told him the terrain is difficult and the weather bad. Even rescue teams find it difficult to reach the crash site. We also told him the remains had been taken to the hospital. He then left,” said Islamabad city administration official Rawal Khan.

Two Americans, an Austrian-born businessman, five children and two babies were among the 152 people on board flight ED 202.

Junaid Ameen, head of Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority, called on rescue teams not to touch the wreckage, which could be invaluable in determining whether a technical fault or bad weather was to blame.

A team from European company Airbus was to assist with the investigation, he said, refusing to speculate on reports that air traffic control may have asked the pilot to divert.

“It is the prerogative of the pilot to decide, keeping the situation in view. The air traffic controller can only advise him.

“The incident shows that the pilot was in an emergency-like situation that led him to enter the restricted area,” he said, refusing to comment further.

The plane broke apart in a gorge between two hills, scattering debris across hillsides enveloped in cloud and located some distance from the nearest road.

It was the worst aviation tragedy on Pakistani soil in history, piling more woes on a country on the frontline of the war on Al-Qaeda and where militant bombers have killed more than 3,570 people in the past three years.

Pakistani flags flew at half mast from all public buildings out of respect for the dead. Businesses took out advertisements in the national press to honour colleagues who were killed or to express condolences.

US President Barack Obama offered his “deepest condolences”. UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply saddened” and China’s President Hu Jintao also conveyed his condolences.

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told reporters that the remains of 115 bodies had been recovered and that it could take up to a week to identify the most charred remains, while urging relatives to be patient.

“It is a tragedy, a great tragedy. The cause of the crash is a technical issue and anything said about the cause at this time is speculation. Everything will be clear after the inquiry,” Kaira said.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters that 66 bodies had been handed over to relatives so far. Authorities set up an office to collect blood samples from relatives in order to identify remains with DNA tests.

Airblue, one of Pakistan’s most respected airlines, was tight-lipped about any possible technical fault or pilot error.

Reports that the pilot was told to take another route were mere speculation, company spokesman Raheel Ahmad told AFP.

The only deadlier civilian plane crash involving a Pakistani jet occurred when a PIA Airbus A300 crashed into a cloud-covered hillside on approach to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu in 1992, killing 167 people. —Agencies

PESHAWAR: At least 17 people were killed in Shangla district’s Bisham area due to land-sliding, DawnNews reported.

Another 35 people were also wounded in the incident and a rescue operation was underway.

PESHAWAR: The death toll in three days of flooding in Pakistan reached at least 313 on Friday, rescue and government officials said, as rains bloated rivers, submerged villages, and triggered landslides.

The rising toll from the monsoon rains underscore the poor infrastructure in Pakistan, where under-equipped rescue workers were struggling to reach people stranded in far-flung villages. The weather forecast was mixed, with some areas expected to see reduced rainfall and others likely to see intensification.

Television footage showed striking images of people clinging to fences and other stationary items as water at times gushed over their heads.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa appeared to be the hardest hit, and Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for the province, said it was the worst flooding in the region since 1929. The highway connecting Peshawar to Islamabad was shut down after the water washed away bridges and other links.

At least 291 people died in various parts of that province over the last three days, said Mujahid Khan of the Edhi Foundation.

In Pakistani-administered Kashmir, at least 22 people had been confirmed dead as of Thursday evening, the region’s prime minister, Sardar Attique Khan, told reporters.

The tolls from the deluge were expected to rise because many people were still missing. Poor weather this week also may have been a factor in Wednesday’s Airblue plane crash that killed 152 people in Islamabad.

In the Swat Valley, residents were forced to trudge through knee-deep water in some streets.

A newly constructed part of a dam in the Charsadda district collapsed, while the UN said it had reports that 5,000 homes were underwater in that area. Hussain estimated 400,000 people were stranded in various northwest villages.

”A rescue operation using helicopters cannot be conducted due to the bad weather, while there are only 48 rescue boats available for rescue,” he said on Thursday.

Pakistan’s poorest residents are often the ones living in flood-prone areas because they can’t afford safer land.

Balochistan province has also been hit hard by the recent rains. Last week, flash floods in the region killed at least 41 people and swept away thousands of homes. The UN statement Thursday said 150,000 people were affected there.

The UN said Punjab province was also hit by some flooding. Crops were soaked in farmlands throughout the country. The UN said the humanitarian community was trying to put together a proper response, but the rains were making many roads impassable, complicating efforts to assess needs.