17 killed as floods wreak havoc in Pakistan's Punjab province

Lahore, Aug 28 (PTI) At least 17 people have died in the past 24 hours as floods submerged hundreds of villages across Pakistan's Punjab province, officials said on Thursday.

Catastrophic flooding in the Sutlej, Ravi, and Chenab rivers has triggered mass evacuations, damaged infrastructure, and inundated millions of acres of agricultural land in the province of over 130 million people.

According to Punjab Emergency Services Rescue 1122, as many as 17 people died in the floods in the past 24 hours -- seven in Sialkot, four in Gujrat, three in Narowal, two in Hafizabad, and one in Gujranwala.

Officials said the unusually high water levels in the three rivers were caused by heavy rains combined with excess water released from dams by India.

Federal Minister for Development Ahsan Iqbal has accused India of "water aggression".

"India has resorted to water aggression. This is a natural disaster that can only be dealt with through cooperation on both sides of the border. India should have treated it as a natural calamity and worked together with Pakistan, but instead, it suddenly released water in the form of a flood wave, using it as a weapon," he said.

India has opened all the gates of its Thein Dam on the Ravi River, prompting the Punjab administration to call in the Pakistan Army in eight districts -- Lahore, Okara, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Narowal, Kasur, Sargodha and Hafizabad -- of Punjab to assist civil authorities in rescue and relief operations, officials had earlier said.

Pakistan had also received a warning from India that it intends to release water from the rapidly filling Madhopur Dam. Both dams are on the Ravi River, which flows from India into Pakistan.

On Sunday, India communicated flood warnings to Pakistan through diplomatic channels on "humanitarian grounds".

A day after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, India took a series of punitive measures against Pakistan that included putting the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 in "abeyance". Usually, flood alerts are shared through the Indus Water Commission.

According to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), major flood surges are moving downstream, with exceptionally high levels recorded at Khanki and Qadirabad headworks on the Chenab and at Ganda Singh Wala on the Sutlej.

The Ravi at Jassar and Shahdara also remains in high flood, prompting evacuations in parts of Lahore.

The Punjab government, in a statement, said over 250,000 people have been evacuated so far and relief operations are continuing.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz conducted an aerial survey of flood-hit areas on Thursday.

The provincial government estimates that around one million people have been affected by the floods so far.

"Some 340 villages in Sialkot, Wazirabad, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Chiniot and Jhang along the banks of the Chenab River have been worst affected due to the flood. Similarly, 335 villages along the banks of the Sutlej River have been affected by the floods.

"The cities affected by the flood in the Sutlej River are Kasur, Oka­ra, Pakpattan, Multan, Vehari, Bahawalnagar and Bahawalpur," the statement said.

Several highways, particularly in Narowal, Shakargarh and Sialkot, are completely submerged, it said.

The Punjab government has sought army assistance in eight districts -- Sialkot, Narowal, Hafizabad, Sargodha, Lahore, Kasur, Okara and Faisalabad.

According to Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Director General Irfan Ali Kathia, a major flood surge is moving through the river system, with key infrastructure remaining secure and large-scale evacuations underway in vulnerable areas.

Meanwhile, floodwater submerged the entire complex of the Kartarpur Corridor, including the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib.

Officials fear damage to the structure, the Sikh holy book and relics.

Around 150 officials and Sikh pilgrims stranded there on Wednesday were rescued, the authorities said.

The Pakistani government opened the Kartarpur Corridor in November 2019, which is around 4.1 kilometres from the Pakistan-India border.

The corridor links Pakistan's Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, where the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev, lived and died at the start of the 16th century, to the Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab's Gurdaspur district. The 4 km-long corridor provides visa-free access to Indian pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib. PTI MZ SCY SCY