World Signal

Heavy rains combined with sudden cloudbursts have caused destructive flash floods in northern India’s Jammu and Kashmir and in parts of northern Pakistan, claiming more than two hundred lives, leaving hundreds missing, and causing severe damage to property and infrastructure. On the morning of August 14, 2025, at around 11:30 a.m. local time, a powerful cloudburst struck Chositi village in Kishtwar district, sending torrents of water rushing through the Machail Mata Yatra pilgrimage route. The disaster killed at least sixty people, injured over a hundred, and left more than two hundred and fifty unaccounted for. A temporary community kitchen serving nearly two hundred pilgrims was swept away along with several houses, vehicles, and a security post. Rescue operations were launched on a large scale, saving about 1,600 people across the affected regions, including three hundred in India, of whom fifty were seriously injured. In Pakistan’s Buner district, at least seventy-eight people died...