50 killed, thousands stranded as flash floods hit Pak Punjab

[caption id=“attachment_1009377” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image: Reuters[/caption] Flash floods triggered by heavy rains have inundated scores of villages in Pakistan’s Punjab province, leaving thousands of people stranded. At least 50 people have been killed so far and over 50 injured since yesterday as heavy rains played havoc in Punjab, parts of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, while the financial hub of Karachi was inundated in torrential downpours. Water overflowing from the Dek channel has inundated over 70 villages in the Pasrur and Zafarwal Tehsil of district Sialkot in Punjab, some 80 kilometres from Lahore. Water level in these flood-affected villages is four to five feet high. According to irrigation officials, agricultural land on hundreds of acres has also been inundated in Pasrur and Zafarwal areas. Floodwater has also cut off the land links between various areas. Hundreds of people from Punjab’s flood-hit areas staged protests in Sambrial Tehsil as the government machinery has yet to initiate efforts to rescue the stranded people. In other provinces, thousands of people living in low lying areas have also been affected by the heavy rains. The navy has been called in to rescue stranded people in Karachi’s low-lying areas. PTI