ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s national disaster authority said on Wednesday 210,000 people had been evacuated from flood-hit areas as the army expanded its rescue and relief operations in Punjab, the country’s most populous province and currently the center of a flood emergency.
Since the monsoon season began on June 26, more than 800 people have been killed across Pakistan. Officials say the worst spell of rains began on Aug. 15 and is still ongoing, with the latest surge of floodwaters in the Sutlej, Chenab and Ravi rivers turning Punjab into the hardest-hit region.
Large swathes of the province are inundated and the government has called for the deployment of army units in multiple districts, including Lahore, Kasur, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Narowal, Okara, Hafizabad and Sargodha, for rescue and relief operations.
Reuters reported on Wednesday India had opened all gates of major dams on rivers in its part of the Kashmir region following heavy rains, and warned neighboring Pakistan of the possibility of downstream flooding.
At a press conference in Islamabad, military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said the armed forces had scaled up their response to the emergency.
