ISLAMABAD: Urban flooding paralyzed parts of Peshawar and Lahore on Saturday as a new spell of monsoon rains battered Pakistan, while the country’s eastern Punjab province continued to grapple with high floods in three raging rivers flowing downstream toward southern Sindh, officials said.
The deluge began in Punjab on Monday after India released water into the Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej rivers, destroying farmlands, sweeping away herds and affecting more than a million people. The three-river situation emerged as Pakistan was still reeling from heavy rains and cloudbursts since late June that have killed about 830 people nationwide. More than half of these fatalities occurred after Aug. 15, when monsoon rains in the north and northwest triggered hill torrents and flash floods that destroyed houses and swept people away.
In Peshawar, officials said heavy overnight rains triggered flooding in low-lying neighborhoods on Friday, prompting large-scale relief operations, with Rescue 1122 saying about 300 people were evacuated with the help of 280 personnel, rubber boats, water rescue vans and ambulances.
“A comprehensive relief operation is underway across rain-impacted areas of the city,” the emergency service spokesperson Bilal Ahmad Faizi said, adding that efforts were concentrated in Nasir Bagh Road, Warsak Road and Budhni.
