By Muhammad Luqman
Heavy Monsoon rains lashing Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi for the last 24 hours, have resulted in the death of atleast 11 persons..
Karachi administration has requested Pakistan Army for assistance in conduct of rescue and relief activities in the city.
“Karachi administration requested army for assistance in managing torrential rain effect in city,” Pakistan armed forces’ media wing , Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on Thursday.
Pakistan’s Meteorological Department (MET) has predicted heavy showers in the port city on Friday as well.
Heavy monsoon rains have also affected Western Indian city of Mumbai to a halt for a second day as the worst floods to strike south Asia in years continued to exact a deadly toll.
According to media reports, more than 1,200 people have died across India, Bangladesh and Nepal as a result of flooding, with 40 million affected by the devastation. At least six people, including two toddlers, were among the victims in and around India’s financial capital, Mumbai.
The devastating floods have also destroyed or damaged 18,000 schools, meaning that about 1.8 million children cannot go to classes, the international Non-Governmental Organization, Save the Children warned on Thursday.
The charity said that hundreds of thousands of children could fall permanently out of the school system if education was not prioritised in relief efforts.
The rains have led to flooding in a broad arc stretching across the Himalayan foothills in Bangladesh, Nepal and India, causing landslides, damaging roads and electric towers and washing away tens of thousands of homes and vast swaths of farmland.
The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) says the fourth significant floods this year have affected more than 7.4 million people in Bangladesh, damaging or destroying more than 697,000 houses.
They have killed 514 in India’s eastern state of Bihar, where 17.1 million have been affected, disaster management officials have been quoted as saying. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, about 2.5 million have been affected and the death toll stood at 109 on Tuesday, according to the Straits Times. The IFRC said landslides in Nepal had killed more than 100 people.
