JALALPUR PIRWALA, Pakistan (AP) — Rescuers backed by troops evacuated more than 25,000 people from a city in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province overnight as rising rivers threatened to flood the region, officials said Monday.
Irfan Ali Kathia, director general of the Punjab Disaster Management Authority, said the rescue operation in Jalalpur Pirwala began on an emergency basis late Sunday and continued through the night. By Monday morning, about 25,000 residents from high-risk neighborhoods had been moved to safer areas.
The latest evacuations from Jalalpur Pirwala came two days after a rescue boat capsized in floodwaters on the city’s outskirts, killing five people. Fifteen others were rescued after the boat overturned Saturday, local officials said.
Ghulam Shabir, a 50-year-old construction worker, said he moved to higher ground near the city after floodwater entered his village, inundating homes and farmland. He appealed to the government to expedite rescue work as many people were still stranded in flooded villages.
Floods have so far affected more than 4.1 million people across 4,100 villages in 25 districts of Punjab province. Since Aug. 26, at least 56 people have died in flood-related incidents, while more than 2 million residents have been moved to safety, Kathia said.
The disaster management official told The Associated Press that displaced families were being provided with tents and food supplies. He said the local administration, assisted by troops and police, was expediting evacuations in the city, which has a population of nearly 700,000. Mosques broadcast evacuation announcements as residents scrambled onto vehicles amid heavy rainfall.
Pakistan’s Punjab has been conducting one of its largest rescue operations, including with the aid of drones, since last month, when floodwaters inundated multiple districts after India released water from its dams. The surges swelled the Ravi, Chenab and Sutlej rivers, while torrential monsoon rains further raised water levels.
Kathia said Punjab’s chief minister, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, is personally monitoring the evacuation effort from a central control room. The Pakistani army, police and rescue services are assisting, including helicopter airlifts from remote villages.
Since late June, monsoon flooding has killed more than 900 people across Pakistan, according to the National Disaster Management Authority. Over the weekend, India again notified Islamabad through diplomatic channels of potential cross-border flooding, the NDMA said.
Kathia said surging waters have already displaced more than 2 million people across Punjab since Aug. 23, when heavy rains and dam releases began overwhelming rivers. Only about 60,000 of them are living in official relief camps, he said, while most sought shelter with relatives in nearby towns or set up makeshift camps along river embankments, waiting for the waters to recede.
Evacuations are also underway in southern Sindh province, which faces growing threats as water continues to flow downstream into the Indus River and where more than 100,000 people have already been relocated from vulnerable settlements.
Sindh was among the worst-hit regions in the catastrophic 2022 floods, which killed 1,739 people nationwide.
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Dogar reported from Lahore, Pakistan.
