Taleban threatens utility company as Pakistan heat kills over 1,150

The Pakistani Taleban warned that it would target the country’s main electrical company if it did not end power outages in the country’s south.

Pakistani family members bring an elderly person to a hospital suffering from a heatstroke in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, June 25, 2015. (AP Photo)

Karachi - Sea breezes brought cooler temperatures on Friday to ease a heat wave that killed more than 1,150 people over a week around Pakistan’s teeming port city of Karachi during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The extreme heat of up to 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) - the hottest since 1981 - coincided with power failures and triggered sharp criticism of the government’s response in the city of 20 million people.

By Friday, the daily high temperature was about 36 degree Celsius (97 Fahrenheit), according to Dr Mohammad Hanif of the Director National Weather Forecasting Centre.

The power outages left many without fans, water or light at the beginning of Ramadan, when many Muslims do not eat or drink during daylight hours.

“By Friday, at least 1,150 people have died in the government-run hospitals,” said Anwar Kazmi of the Edhi Foundation, a private charity that runs a network of ambulances and morgues.

The crisis - following a heat wave in India last month that killed about 2,500 people - illustrates how ill-prepared many developing nations are for the extreme weather conditions that scientists say will accompany global climate change in coming decades.

“These type of events are taking place across the world ... we need to prepare ourselves and develop our strategy,” said Qamar uz Zaman Chaudhry, the Islamabad-based special adviser for Asia to the UN-World Meteorological Organization.

“It’s time to learn lessons, instead of getting into the blame game.”

Pakistan’s national and local political parties have blamed one another for the crisis, while much of the relief was provided by the powerful military and private charities such as the Edhi Foundation.

Taleban threatens utility company in heat-stricken Karachi

The Pakistani Taleban warned on Friday that it would target the country’s main electrical company if it did not end power outages in the country’s south — where an intense heat wave has killed 866 people in the past week.

In a statement released Friday, Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taleban Pakistan, also expressed his grief and condolences over the heat-related deaths in the southern port city of Karachi.

The chronic power cuts in the midst of a record heat wave have caused public protests in Karachi. The K-Electric company, in a statement, has blamed technical faults and surging demand for the power outages.

Khurasani’s group has been fighting to overthrow the Pakistani government.

Temperatures in southern Pakistan began to drop on Thursday, fueling hopes that the worst of the heat wave has passed. But authorities said heatstroke patients were still being brought to the Karachi hospitals.