Pak villagers hit hard
Saturday, 30 June 2007
TURBAT, June 29 (AP): Hungry victims of monsoon-spawned floods rioted Friday, protesting slow, meager aid reaching their marooned villages where many feared the receding waters would yield numerous corpses.
Police fired tear gas and shots into the air but failed to disperse a crowd of several thousand villagers who broke into and ransacked the mayor's office in this city in southwestern Pakistan ringed by floodwaters.
The widespread flooding struck in the wake of a cyclone that dumped torrential rains on the province of Baluchistan.
The protesters said they had waded through chest-deep water from outlying areas to voice their anger about the dearth of relief aid. Only packets of biscuits and bottles of water had been received, they said.
"Every family is looking for one or two members. They are all missing," said Chaker Baloth, who walked more than 25 miles through the night to reach this city of some 150,000. Others feared they would never see their missing family members again.
"I don't know if there are more fish or bodies in the Mirani Dam," said one local official, about the vastly expanded lake behind the dam which engulfed many communities about 25 miles north of Turbat.
Military helicopters continued to drop relief supplies, but many of the more than 800,000 people hit by monsoon flooding in southwest Pakistan appeared to have received little or nothing.
Many of those affected were stranded in high open areas or on roofs in Baluchistan province following Cyclone Yemyin Tuesday.
The total number of lives lost in the unusually severe flooding is still unknown and officials said an accurate toll would only be possible after the floodwaters receded.
Twenty people died in flash floods Thursday in the northwestern Khyber Agency tribal region, said government official Ilyas Khan.
Police fired tear gas and shots into the air but failed to disperse a crowd of several thousand villagers who broke into and ransacked the mayor's office in this city in southwestern Pakistan ringed by floodwaters.
The widespread flooding struck in the wake of a cyclone that dumped torrential rains on the province of Baluchistan.
The protesters said they had waded through chest-deep water from outlying areas to voice their anger about the dearth of relief aid. Only packets of biscuits and bottles of water had been received, they said.
"Every family is looking for one or two members. They are all missing," said Chaker Baloth, who walked more than 25 miles through the night to reach this city of some 150,000. Others feared they would never see their missing family members again.
"I don't know if there are more fish or bodies in the Mirani Dam," said one local official, about the vastly expanded lake behind the dam which engulfed many communities about 25 miles north of Turbat.
Military helicopters continued to drop relief supplies, but many of the more than 800,000 people hit by monsoon flooding in southwest Pakistan appeared to have received little or nothing.
Many of those affected were stranded in high open areas or on roofs in Baluchistan province following Cyclone Yemyin Tuesday.
The total number of lives lost in the unusually severe flooding is still unknown and officials said an accurate toll would only be possible after the floodwaters receded.
Twenty people died in flash floods Thursday in the northwestern Khyber Agency tribal region, said government official Ilyas Khan.