Aga Khan Agency for Habitat responds to avalanches in Khorog and the Badakhshan regions of Tajikistan and Afghanistan which have claimed lives and damaged properties

17 February 2023

Prepared and compiled by MALIK MERCHANT
from AKDN, Reuters, BBC and the website of the President of Tajikistan

Featured image at top of post: A view shows the area affected by an avalanche in Gorno-Badakhshan region, Tajikistan, February 15, 2023. Photograph: Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defense of Tajikistan/Handout via REUTERS.

The Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH), an agency within the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), reports that more than 50 avalanches have hit the Badakhshan regions of Tajikistan and Afghanistan in recent days causing multiple casualties and damage to around 20 buildings and houses in the provincial capital Khorog (or Khorugh — town is circled in map below.)

Map of Tajikistan with surrounding countries from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, University of Texas. Simerg news avalanche — Map of Tajikistan with surrounding countries from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, University of Texas. Note: Towns circled mentioned in story; map has been annotated for story. Click on image for enlargement.

According to the latest report by Reuters, the death toll stands at 20. Khorog is home to some 30,000 people. Its population is predominantly Ismaili Muslims and the town hosts the Tajikistan campus of the University of Central Asia. The mayor of provincial capital Khorog, Rizo Nazarzoda, urged its residents to stay at home as heavy snow and rain fell. Reuters states that videos from the area showed one-storey buildings covered up to their roofs with snow and ice blocks, with rescue teams digging through the snow in search of bodies.

The following is a summary of the avalanche as reported in BBC news on February 17, 2023:

Khorog worst hit with 13 people killed;
2 female students missing in the Ishkoshim area [or Eshkashem, town is circled in map above];
Child pulled from a collapsed house and crowds nearby are seen digging through the deep snow in the hope of finding more survivors.

*A view shows the area affected by an avalanche in Gorno-Badakhshan region, Tajikistan, February 15, 2023. Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defense of Tajikistan/Handout via REUTERS*.

*A view of an area in Khorog where an avalanche has destroyed several buildings as well as claimed lives. Photograph: Courtesy Photo.*

People take part in a rescue operation following an avalanche slide in Gorno-Badakhshan region, Tajikistan, February 15, 2023. Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defense of Tajikistan/Handout via REUTERS — People take part in a rescue operation following an avalanche slide in Gorno-Badakhshan region, Tajikistan, February 15, 2023. Photograph: Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defense of Tajikistan/Handout via REUTERS

In response to the avalanches, the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, called the chairman of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, Alisher Khudoberdi Mirzonabot, and gave specific instructions for the prompt elimination of the consequences of the natural disaster and the provision of material assistance to affected families. In its brief, the President’s office states that more than a metre of snow fell in the region in the recent 3 days, which caused an avalanche to descend in Khorog.

The President has also received numerous messages of condolences including the following from his counterpart in the neghbouring Kyrgyz Republic, President Sadyr Japarov:

“It is with deep sorrow that I received the news of the death of people as a result of an avalanche in the city of Khorog, Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province of the Republic of Tajikistan, which occurred on February 15, 2023. On behalf of the entire people of Kyrgyzstan and on my own behalf, I express my condolences to the families and relatives of the victims and share their grief. I ask the Almighty for a speedy recovery of the injured.”

A view of the campus of the University of Central Asia in Khorog. Photograph: AKDN.

Shams Kassim Lakha with Governor of GBAO and Mayor of Khorog — Left to righ: Dr. Shamsh Kassim-Lakha, Chairman of University of Central Asia’s Board of Trustees pictured with the Governor of Gorno-Badakshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) of the Republic of Tajikistan, Mr. Alisher Khudoberdi Mirzonabot, and the Mayor of Khorog Mr. Rizo Nazarzoda on February 7, 2023, in Khorog. The Mayor is seen presenting Dr. Kassim-Lakha with a Rubab, a traditional Tajik musical instrument. The meeting took place before the avalanches descended in Khorog on February 14, from very heavy snowfalls in the region. Dr. Kassim-Lakha thanked the Governor, the Mayor of Khorog and the Government of Tajikistan for their support extended to UCA, and discussed with him the on-going and planned joint initiatives aiming to enhance the quality of education for the peoples of Tajikistan. Photograph: University of Central Asia.

Community Emergency Response volunteers trained by the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH) have been mobilised, at the request of the Government of Tajikistan, after over 50 avalanches have hit the region. In this picture AKAH volunteers clear a road blocked by an avalanche in Badakhshan in 2021. Photograph: AKAH.

AKAH has mobilised quickly to respond to the urgent request from the Government of Tajikistan, deploying trained teams to conduct search and rescue operations. With heavy snowfall continuing, AKAH is helping relocate people from at risk areas and providing temporary shelter for those displaced. AKDN is also providing fuel to district authorities to support local ambulance services and is clearing roads blocked by the avalanches.

AKDN’s Pamir Energy is working to repair damage to power lines and resume energy services in affected towns as soon as possible.

Date posted: February 16, 2023.
Last updated: February 17, 2023 (added message of condolence from the Kyrgyz Republic, BBC story and map of region.)

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Related report(s):

BBC: Search for survivors after deadly avalanches hit Tajikistan

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Visions of Badakhshan on Simerg

12 June 2015

1 Comment

Letter from Publisher

Muslim Harji's portrait of an Ismaili girl in the Wakhan Corridor of Badakhshan. She is seen Little Suranoor having breakfast before getting ready for school in the Village of Namadgut.

Muslim Harji’s portrait of an Ismaili girl in the Wakhan Corridor of Badakhshan. Little Suranoor is seen having her breakfast before getting ready for school in the Village of Namadgut.

By Abdulmalik Merchant

When my parents visited me in Voorhees, New Jersey, during the spring of 1995, we would together walk to the main library twice a week. The short walk passed by scenic ponds and streams. There was a scary component to it though — encounters with scattered groups of unfriendly geese.

Once in the library, our focus was to read the Sunday newspapers from nearby cities that made their way into the magazine and newspaper section by Monday.

During one such visit, my dad found himself staring at the Baltimore Sun’s wonderful two page spread of Mawlana Hazar Imam’s first historic visit to Tajikistan, that had taken place a few days earlier. The June 4, 1995, story gave a moving account of the visit by the paper’s correspondent Kathy Lally. It was obvious that she was well acquainted with the Ismailis, and also understood the emotions of the Ismaili people, who had greeted their Imam for the first time in centuries. To my delight, an on-line version of the report did become available, and I reproduced it on Simerg, with the Sun’s permission, some 5 years ago under the title A Western Correspondent’s Account of the Aga Khan’s Historic First Visit to His Followers in Gorno-Badakhshan.

The photo was taken during Didar (Invitation) – a celebration that takes place on 28th of May every year to commemorate the anniversary of the Aga Khan’s visit to the village in the 1990s. During the celebrations the villagers dress up, dance outdoors to the accordion and drums and sing ginane (religious songs), which tell of him being their Noor (light). The photograph was taken as these girls, dressed in bright atlas silk fabric with crowns on their heads, were going out to dance. Photo: Matthieu Paley. Copyright.

Two decades are not long in the life of a community, and for each of these past twenty years, since Mawlana Hazar Imam’s first visit in May 1995, the Ismaili community of Gorno-Badakhshan has commemorated the historic visit with a celebration known as “Didar” (a Glimpse, of the Imam) or “Noor” (the Light, that the Imam represents). The happiness of this annual event was captured by world-renowned photographer Matthieu Paley in the picture above where Ismaili girls are proudly displaying a framed decorated photo of their beloved Imam.

Subsequently, in addition to many other Badakhshan pieces, we published Ismaili Portraits From Tajikistan, by Khorog’s most distinguished and beloved ‘foreign’ permanent resident, Dr. Ali Rajput of Birmingham, England who in his personal capacity has served the jamat in Badakhshan in numerous ways.

Another piece that we were fortunate to publish was a personal account from Gulnor Saratbekova entitled “Shukr Mawlo, Shukr Mawlo” – When Hope is All You Have Left, describing the dangerous and nervous state of affairs during the prolonged period of civil strife and unrest in Tajikistan in the early 1990’s. Her gratitude, shukr, in this piece is of course to Mawlana Hazar Imam who through the work of his Imamat institutions averted a serious famine that the jamat and other countrymen faced during the Civil War. I would strongly recommend that readers visit the links mentioned for some historical memories.

…..AND NOW MUSLIM HARJI’S SUPERB BADAKHSHAN SERIES

Scenic Badakhshan. Please click on photo for an incredible collection of photos of Badakhshan. Photo: Muslim Harji.

Now, Simerg is happy to present a photographic series dedicated to Badakhshan and Central Asia by none other than Canadian photographer Muslim Harji of Montreal. While he admires and cherishes the memories of the beautiful landscapes of Badakhshan that he captured with his lens, what he has come away most from this visit is the hospitality and warmth of the Ismaili people of Badakhshan. Harji’s incredible photo essays about his journeys to Jerusalem, Dubai, Iran, Turkey, South and South East Asia, have been seen by thousands on this blog, and we are delighted to add this new one to Simerg’s superb photo collection. Please click The Ismailis of Badakhshan Through My Lens by Muslim Harji.

With Tajikistan and Badakhshan now more accessible than ever before, and with so many exciting Imamat projects underway in that part of the world, we hope that Harji’s story will inspire the professional and youth of the jamat to visit this remote and beautiful region. By the way, there is an incredible array of well-organized professional tours to the region that are led by highly experienced non-Jamati operators in North America and Europe.