Floods in KP turn wedding celebrations into 24 funerals

Two days before his wedding, Noor Muhammad had a long phone call with his mother, just hours before devastating floods in Pakistan killed her along with 23 family members and relatives.

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"I cannot explain how happy she was," he said standing by the rubble of his family's large 36-room house, perched on the bank of a floodwater channel in Qadir Nagar village.

The village in mountainous Buner district has been the worst hit by recent massive rain in the country, accounting for over 200 deaths out of nearly 400 in floods in the northwest since Aug.15.

Buner is a three-and-a-half-hour drive from the capital Islamabad.

"Everything was finished," sobbed Muhammad, 25, as mourners sat at his damaged house to offer condolences, saying there was nothing left when he got home except for rubble and heavy rocks, which swept down from the mountains along with mud and raging flood waters, smashing into houses, markets and buildings.

"The flood came, a huge flood came, it swept away everything, home, mother, sister, brother, my uncle, my grandfather and children."

Muhammad works as a labourer in Malaysia. He arrived at the Islamabad airport on Aug.15 to drive home where his wedding preparations were in full swing for two days later.

Instead, he attended 24 funerals.