by Jibran Khan

Thatta and Qumbar-Shadadkot, in Sindh Province, are the most affected districts. Hindus and Christians accuse Muslim landowners of getting floodwaters diverted onto their villages to save their rice fields. Meanwhile, the nationality of the three foreign volunteers killed in the Swat Valley is made public. One was American, another Swedish and the third, British.

Islamabad (AsiaNews) – Floods continue to have devastating effects in Pakistan, despite the gradual receding of the waters. In the southern parts of Sindh Province (southern Pakistan), the Indus River has broken its banks near the Kotri Barrage, swamping dozens of villages. According to UN spokesperson Maurizio Giuliano, more than a million people were forced out of their homes in Thatta and Qumbar-Shadadkot, in the Indus Delta.

Sindh, one of the worst affected regions, is home to Pakistan’s rice growing areas, located along the banks of the Indus until the Arabian Sea. In order to save their fields, some landowners have diverted floodwaters towards areas inhabited by Hindus and Christians.

Local sources told AsiaNews that a big local landowner, Sardar Aslam Palejo, who is also a member of the provincial legislature with ties to Islamic extremists, got the authorities to divert floodwaters from the Kotri Barrage towards the villages of Mirpur Bathoro and Darro.

“Palejo has deliberately diverted the flood towards our villages only to save his land,” said Darro resident David Javed. As a result of this, more than 800 families have nothing left. “We are poor, the rice production is our bread and butter, our fields are under water,” Javed lamented.

For their part, the authorities hastily rejected accusations that they deliberately diverted waters towards the villages. “We diverted the flood on the instruction from higher authorities. We are just doing our duty,” one official said.

Meanwhile military sources told AsiaNews where the three foreign volunteers killed by the Taliban in the Swat Valley came from. Contrary to early reports that all three were Americans, one is thought to be from the United States, but the other two came from Sweden and the United Kingdom.

At the same international aid is mounting. Muslim countries announced that they have raised US$ 1 billion, mostly from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Turkey.

• pakistan
• floods
• sindh
• displaced
• peopled
• rice
• fields
• aid
• collusion