NEW DELHI (AP) — Intense rains have left at least 34 people dead after lashing parts of Pakistan and India and triggering flash floods and landslides in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Wednesday. Over 200,000 people in Pakistan have been displaced, and the shrine of the founder of the Sikh religion has been submerged.
Forecasters say rain will continue across the region this week. Heavy downpours and flash floods in the Himalayan region have killed nearly 100 people in August.
Part of a mountainside in Indian-controlled Kashmir's Jammu region collapsed onto a popular Hindu pilgrimage route following heavy rains in the Katra area late Tuesday. Devotees had been trekking to reach the hilltop temple, which is one of the most visited shrines in northern India, officials said.
The bodies of most of the pilgrimage victims were recovered from under the debris, according to disaster management official Mohammed Irshad, who said at least 18 other people were injured and transported to hospitals.
Rescue teams scoured the area Wednesday for missing people, and the pilgrimage to the shrine has been suspended, Irshad said.
Authorities in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province on Wednesday called for army assistance in rescue and relief efforts after torrential rains caused major rivers to swell, inundating villages and displacing over 200,000 people, according to Lt. Gen. Inam Haider, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority.
Army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif said two soldiers were killed while helping flood victims. He gave no further details.
Floods also submerged the shrine of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, which is located near the Indian border in Narowal district.
Rescuers evacuated more than 20,000 people overnight from the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, which faced the risk of flooding. Those evacuated were living along the bed of the Ravi river, said Irfan Ali Kathia, director-general of the Punjab Disaster Management Authority.
Mass evacuations began earlier this week in six districts of Punjab after heavier-than-normal monsoon rains and the release of water from overflowing dams in neighboring India triggered flash floods in low-lying border regions, Kathia said.
Kathia warned floodwaters in the Ravi, Chenab and Sutlej rivers were rising dangerously and many villages were inundated in Kasur, Okara, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Vehari and Sialkot districts.
India alerted Pakistan about possible cross-border flooding through diplomatic channels rather than the Indus Waters Commission, the permanent mechanism under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty. New Delhi suspended the commission’s work after the April killing of 26 tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir, though Pakistan insists India cannot unilaterally scrap the treaty.
Rescuers with sniffer dogs continue to search for more than 150 people who have been reported missing this month after flooding killed over 300 residents in three villages in Pakistan's northwestern Buner district.
Floods have killed more than 800 people in Pakistan since late June.
Scientists say climate change is fueling heavier monsoon rains in South Asia, raising fears of a repeat of a 2022 weather disaster that struck a third of Pakistan and killed 1,739 people.
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Ahmed reported from Islamabad and Saaliq reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writer Babar Dogar contributed from Lahore, Pakistan.
