KABUL = Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Saturday pledged to set up a relief fund for the victims of avalanches that claimed over 280 lives, and called for international help with the relief effort. Avalanches killed at least 286 people across Afghanistan last week, the bulk of the them in the mountainous province of Panjshir, around 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Kabul. Some 1,250 homes were also destroyed by the huge sheets of snow, which engulfed whole villages as they swept down from the Afghan peaks after days of heavy blizzards.