By Aamir Latif

PAKISTAN (AA) - Another 36 people were claimed dead in different rain and flood-related mishaps across Pakistan over the past 24 hours, pushing the overall tally to 1,162, according to the official statistics released on Tuesday.

Of the latest fatalities, 19 were reported from northeastern Punjab province, whose southern districts have been battered by massive floods caused by torrential rains over the past two weeks.

Nine people, according to the country's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), were killed in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The remaining deaths were reported from southern Sindh and southwestern Balochistan provinces, the authority said.

A total of 3,554 people have been injured in all the four provinces, northern Gilgit-Baltistan region and Islamabad-controlled part of Kashmir since mid-June.

Some 33.4 million Pakistanis in 72 districts across the country have been affected by the ongoing rainfall and floods, the NDMA said.

Constant rains and raging floods have already destroyed a large chunk of infrastructure and agricultural lands across the country, including tens of thousands of houses, roads, and bridges, and washed away nearly a million animals.

• Prime Minister visit to flood hit areas 

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday visited the flood hit areas of Swat, Kohistan in NW Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and met with victims.

In Kalam, a tourist spot of Pakistan, where dozens tourists and stranded, Sharif directed the relevant authorities to immediately evacuate them  from the area who were trapped there after the link roads were damaged by recent flash floods.

Upon the direction of the prime minister, a helicopter arrived there to airlift the tourists on emergency basis. The prime minister directed for expediting the operation of shifting of the people to the safe areas.

Sharif also directed the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) to restore the damaged roads on emergency basis as sevarl areas in Swat are still disconnected from other parts of the country. 

*Mashal Khan contributed to this story from Islamabad