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| India-Pakistan |
| Indian, Pakistani troops in massive flood rescue operations |
| 2014-09-09 |
| [ARABNEWS] Rescue workers in boats and helicopters worked to save thousands of people trapped in homes and on rooftops Monday after floods and landslides killed more than 320 people in the Himalayan region of Kashmire and eastern Pakistain. Six days of torrential rains have soaked both sides of the divided territory of Kashmire, which India and Pakistain each claim. A senior Indian army official said the Kashmire valley is facing critical danger. "Our focus remains to rescue people who are stranded in their houses, and provide them some basic necessities," said Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda. Although the rain has stopped, thousands of people were in peril in both countries. In the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmire, which suffered its worst flooding in five decades, the force of the water snapped electric pylons and disrupted mobile telephone and landline networks, leaving many in the dark with no means of communication. And in northern and eastern Pakistain, including the Pakistain-controlled part of Kashmire, soldiers were helping civilian authorities with rescue operations. More than 120 people have died in India, authorities said. Pakistain's National Disaster Management Authority front man Ahmad Kamal said the corpse count there had reached 205 people -- 131 people in the Punjab district and 74 in the Kashmire and Gilgit areas. Pak authorities were preparing for worsening conditions as water levels in the Chenab and Indus rivers were rising, Kamal said. Farmer Abid Hussain, who was among those rescued by helicopter to Pindi Bhattian town, said he could not save anything from the raging waters that swept through his home. "We were at home when suddenly someone shouted: 'Water has come'," Hussain told news hounds in Pindi Bhattian, 265 kilometers (165 miles) southeast of Islamabad. "We could not take anything but rushed toward the mosque for safety. Soon we had to climb to the rooftop as water submerged the ground floor. We had been on the roof for two days until the helicopter rescued us and brought us here," Hussain said. "Everything has been washed away or destroyed in this flood," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |