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Pakistan floods force mass evacuations

2025-08-30 HKT 18:27
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  • Monsoon rains have flooded many villages along the Sutlej River in Kasur district of Punjab province. File photo: Reuters
    Monsoon rains have flooded many villages along the Sutlej River in Kasur district of Punjab province. File photo: Reuters
Nearly half a million people have been displaced by flooding in eastern Pakistan after days of heavy rain swelled rivers, relief officials said on Saturday, as they carried out a massive rescue operation.

Three transboundary rivers that cut through Punjab province, which borders India, have swollen to exceptionally high levels, affecting more than 2,300 villages.

Nabeel Javed, the head of the Punjab government's relief services, said 481,000 people stranded by the floods have been evacuated, along with 405,000 livestock.

Overall, more than 1.5 million people have been affected by the flooding.

"This is the biggest rescue operation in Punjab's history," Irfan Ali Khan, the head of the province's disaster management agency, added at a press conference.

He said more than 800 boats and over 1,300 rescue personnel were involved in evacuating families from affected areas, mostly located in rural areas near the banks of the three rivers.

The latest spell of monsoon flooding since the start of the week has killed 30 people, he said, with hundreds left dead throughout the heavier than usual season that began in June.

More than 500 relief camps have been set up to provide shelter to families and their livestock.

Rains continued throughout Saturday, including in Lahore, the country's second-largest city, where an entire housing development was half submerged by water.

In mid-August, more than 400 Pakistanis were killed in a matter of days by landslides caused by torrential rains on the other side of the country, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, close to Afghanistan and the only province held by the opposition to the federal authorities.

In 2022, unprecedented monsoon floods submerged a third of Pakistan, with the southern province of Sindh the worst affected area. (AFP)

Pakistan floods force mass evacuations