Heavy downpours, lightning kill 65 in Pakistan

At least 65 people have perished in storm-related accidents in Pakistan, including lightning, according to officials, with rain falling at roughly twice the historical average rate in April.

Heavy rains between Friday and Monday produced flash floods and collapsed houses, while lightning killed at least 28 people.

The highest death toll occurred in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 32 people, including 15 children, died and more than 1,300 homes were damaged.

“All the casualties resulted from the collapse of walls and roofs,” Anwar Khan, spokesman for the province’s disaster management authority, told AFP on Wednesday.

Villagers whose homes were inundated with water were forced to seek refuge on higher ground, including on the shoulders of motorways, creating makeshift tents with plastic sheeting and bamboo sticks.

“In April, we have observed highly unusual rainfall patterns,” Zaheer Ahmad Babar, spokesperson for the Pakistan Meteorological Department, told AFP.

“From April 1st to April 17th, we experienced precipitation levels exceeding the historical average by 99 percent,” he added, citing data from the past 30 years as a comparison.

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Most of the country experienced a pause in rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, but more downpours are predicted in the coming days.

“Climate change is a major factor behind these unusual weather patterns and above normal rainfalls, but it’s not just Pakistan which is affected, the whole region is experiencing changes in temperature patterns,” Babar added.

Pakistan is increasingly vulnerable to unpredictable weather patterns, as well as often destructive monsoon rains that usually arrive in July.

In the summer of 2022, a third of Pakistan was submerged by unprecedented monsoon rains that displaced millions of people and cost the country $30 billion in damage and economic losses, according to a World Bank estimate.

In the latest rains, 21 people including farmers harvesting wheat were killed by lightning in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, provincial authorities said.

At least eight people were killed in Balochistan province, including seven struck by lightning, where 25 districts were battered by rain and some areas were flooded.

People living in open, rural areas are at greater risk of being struck by lightning during thunderstorms.

Schools in Balochistan province were ordered shut on Monday and Tuesday, with some reopening on Wednesday, because of the downpours.

At least four people were killed in road accidents linked to flooded roads in southern Sindh province.

Heavy downpours, lightning kill 65 in Pakistan

(AFP)

Israeli forces attack Gaza refugee camps, kill 18

Eleven people, including children, were killed in an Israeli air strike on the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza as Israel continued to assault the Palestinian territories.

An Israeli jet attack on a residence in Rafah’s Yabna refugee camp was alleged to have killed seven more people, including four children.

ALjazeera had earlier reported that Gaza’s Civil Defence said “a number” of people had been killed and injured in the attack as they worked to pull the people injured, and the bodies of those killed, from under the rubble.

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Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera Arabic shared video footage showing Israeli forces using heavy construction equipment to destroy the home of a Palestinian family in the town of Bani Naim east of Hebron city.

Earlier, Israeli forces used explosives and poured fresh concrete to destroy the family home of a killed Palestinian in the town of Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem, the Wafa news agency reported.

Muslim student loses High Court challenge against Michaela School’s prayer ban

Michaela Community School in Wembley, led by headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh, insisted its approach promoted ‘inclusion and social cohesion between pupils’

A Muslim student at a London school once dubbed Britain’s strictest has lost a High Court challenge against its ban on prayer rituals.

The pupil, who cannot be named, took legal action against Michaela Community School in Wembley claiming its policy was discriminatory and “uniquely” affects her faith due to its ritualised nature.

In an 83-page judgment dismissing the student’s case, Mr Justice Linden said: “It seems to me that this is a case…where the claimant at the very least impliedly accepted, when she enrolled at the school, that she would be subject to restrictions on her ability to manifest her religion.

“She knew that the school is secular and her own evidence is that her mother wished her to go there because it was known to be strict.

“She herself says that, long before the prayer ritual policy was introduced, she and her friends believed that prayer was not permitted at school and she therefore made up for missed prayers when she got home.”

The judge upheld the student’s challenge to a decision to temporarily exclude her from the school.

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Katharine Birbalsingh, the founder and headteacher of Michaela Community School, has hailed the ruling as a victory for all schools.

“The court’s decision is therefore a victory for all schools.

“Schools should not be forced by one child and her mother to change its approach simply because they have decided they don’t like something at the school.”

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan also welcomed the judgment on the free school’s prayer rituals ban.

She said: “I have always been clear that headteachers are best placed to make decisions in their school.

“Michaela is an outstanding school and I hope this judgment gives all school leaders the confidence to make the right decisions for their pupils.”

The case was heard at the High Court in January. Ms Birbalsingh, insisted its approach promoted “inclusion and social cohesion between pupils”.

She had planned to appeal the ruling if the school lost, telling the Sunday Times after the January hearing: “I will not divide children according to race and religion; it will not happen under my watch.”

The court was told the pupil, referred to only as TTT, was making a “modest” request to be allowed to pray for around five minutes at lunch time, on dates when faith rules required it, but not during lessons.

She argued the school’s stance on prayer – one of the five pillars of Islam – unlawfully breached her right to religious freedom and was “the kind of discrimination which makes religious minorities feel alienated from society”.

The policy was first introduced in March last year, the court heard.

Additional reporting by PA News Agency

Muslim student loses High Court challenge against Michaela School’s prayer ban

inews.co.uk