Around eight people were killed in the country on Friday due to torrential rains. According to media reports, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Upper Punjab received heavy rain on Friday. Three people, including a minor girl, were killed by lightning at Dhodho, Sialkot.
In a separate incident, three more people died due to epidemic disease in Badin. Two women were killed and two other injured when roof of their house caved in near FDA city due to heavy downpour in the Nishatabad Police precincts in Faisalabad. According to Rescue 1122, Mukhtar Ahmed and his family members, Nasreen (wife), Adil (son) and another woman Nasrana were present in their house situated at Tibbah Colony on Sargodha Road when roof of their house collapsed due to heavy rain.
Both the women died on the spot while Mukhtar and Adil received minor injuries and were discharged after first aid by rescue officials. Separately, epidemics struck thousands in flood-hit areas of interior Sindh. According to media reports, hundreds of thousands of flood-stricken people were facing an acute shortage of food and medicine. Although helicopters had dropped food-packets in some areas, the quantity was insufficient for thousands of hungry people. Almost 90 percent land in Mirpurkhas has been affected by floods where 70 people have died while 400 others got injured in various flood-related incidents.
The land-links of the district have been disconnected and there was no health facility for the stranded people. Looting and stealing incidents were also on the rise in urban and rural areas. Rainwater flooded relief camps in various districts of Sindh and no arrangements were made to evacuate the people. Livestock was also dying across Sindh, including Hyderabad, amplifying the risk of epidemics in the city. The rain water could not be drained out from different areas of Hyderabad even after four days, causing misery for the people.
Around 5.5 million people have been badly affected in Sindh by the devastating rains and flood, former federal ministers Raja Pervez Ashraf, Nazar Gondal and Punjab Opposition Leader Raja Riaz said while addressing a press conference at the Nawabshah Press Club. The massive rains have caused widespread devastation in Sindh and vast areas were under water. Crops have also been damaged, especially that of cotton, the leaders said. They pointed out that President Asif Ali Zardari visited the rain-affected areas and directed that all resources be utilised to help the affected people.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders asked the NDMA and the PDMA to work jointly for provision of assistance to the affected people. They said that the government would meet this enormous challenge and the PM had cancelled his visit to the US because of the flood situation. Riaz said that a parliamentary delegation was visiting Sindh to express solidarity with the people of the province in this hour of the need. He said, “We will not leave our brothers from Sindh at this very juncture”.
Ashraf said that the construction of Bhasha Dam would commence soon and the project would also generate 4,000MW. He pointed out that the level of the Mangla Dam would also be raised.
