Category: 1. Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Wednesday floods had killed at least 43 people in the last 10 days and displaced over 1.3 million in the breadbasket province of Punjab, as swollen rivers carried some of the heaviest volumes in years and officials warned the threat of further inundations remained.

More than 3.6 million people have been affected across 3,363 villages after days of heavy monsoon rains and dam releases from upstream India, according to official figures released by the government. Nearly 1.29 million people have been moved to safer areas, with hundreds of relief camps set up across inundated districts in Punjab, Pakistan’s most prosperous province and agricultural heartland. 

Nationwide, rains, floods and landslides have killed more than 880 people since late June, reviving memories of Pakistan’s catastrophic 2022 deluges when a third of the country was submerged, 30 million displaced and losses topped $35 billion.

“Severe flooding in the Ravi, Sutlej and Chenab rivers has affected more than 3.63 million people across 3,363 villages,” Punjab Relief Commissioner Nabeel Javed said in a statement. 

“Lives and livelihoods are being protected through timely evacuations and relief efforts, but the situation remains critical.” 

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) warned that a second flood surge was traveling through the Chenab, with peak flows of 548,237 cusecs recorded at Marala Headworks at noon on Sept. 3. 

“The wave is expected to reach Khanki at 20:00 hours with 558,237 cusecs, and Qadirabad at 03:00 hours on Sept. 4 with 550,237 cusecs,” the NDMA’s National Emergencies Operations Center said.

The surge is forecast to reach Trimmu by Sept. 8 with 330,226 cusecs, Panjnad by Sept. 11 with 264,980 cusecs, and Guddu Barrage by Sept. 13 at 217,283 cusecs. Administrations in all vulnerable districts have been directed to prepare large-scale evacuations, reinforce embankments and keep emergency services on standby.

Punjab’s disaster authority said the Chenab had swelled by more than 400,000 cusecs in the past eight hours, warning that flows in the Ravi, Chenab and Sutlej were expected to increase further through Sept. 5 due to continued rainfall in upstream catchments. 

Officials said the situation remained critical for downstream districts, where embankments were being reinforced and evacuation teams pre-deployed.

Around 655 relief camps have been established in Punjab, sheltering over 11,000 people, alongside 404 medical camps that have treated 26,441 patients. 

Floodwaters have battered electricity distribution networks across Punjab, leaving tens of thousands without power in districts such as Jhang and Toba Tek Singh. Restoration work is continuing, with officials saying most repairs should be completed later this week if waters recede.

In Sialkot, a major export hub, the city’s international airport said all flight operations had resumed after precautionary measures were taken. 

“The airport is fully operational, and a new shuttle service has been launched for passengers,” spokesperson Muhammad Umair Khan said.

The NDMA said it was working “round the clock under the prime minister’s instructions” in coordination with civil and military institutions, with the National Emergencies Operations Center fully active.

Pakistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, where scientists say rising temperatures are making South Asian monsoon rains heavier and more erratic. 

Seasonal downpours provide up to 80 percent of the country’s annual rainfall but also cause regular devastation.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore on Wednesday accepted the post-arrest bail plea of Shahrez Khan, nephew of incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan, in a May 9, 2023 violence case.

Earlier in the day, the ATC reserved its verdict on the bail petition filed by Shahrez — son of PTI founder’s sister Aleema Khan — in the Jinnah House attack case. He was arrested on August 21.

The May 9 riots broke out across the country following the arrest of the PTI founder in a corruption case in 2023. The violence included attacks on military and state installations, with the Jinnah House incident becoming one of the most high-profile cases.

At the outset of today’s hearing, Shahrez’s counsel argued that allegations of inciting PTI workers had been leveled against his client, but the prosecution failed to produce any evidence to support the claims.

At this, the public prosecutor, while opposing the bail plea, told the court that the suspect’s affidavit had not been verified.

The court reserved its verdict after hearing arguments from both sides and announced it later in the night.

Earlier on August 30, the Lahore police presented Aleema’s son before the ATC court Judge Manzer Ali Gill upon the completion of his physical remand.

During the hearing, the prosecution sought an extension in physical remand for further investigation from the accused. Judge Gill, rejecting the police request, sent him on judicial remand.

It is pertinent to mention here that Khan’s second nephew, Shershah, is also in the police custody in the May 9 riots case. He was also arrested on August 22.

Following the expiry of his five-day physical remand, the ATC on August 29 sent Shershah on a 14-day judicial remand in the violence case.

Sources had told Geo News earlier that both of the suspects were primarily arrested for their alleged involvement in the Jinnah House attack.

“Shershah was present with Hassan Niazi at the time of the Jinnah House attack and had earlier been booked in connection with the case. He was facing accusations of arson, vandalism, and torching a police van, as well as “running an anti-state digital campaign for months”.

He allegedly went into hiding after the violence and later fled to London, where he remained for nearly two years, the sources added.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore on Wednesday granted bail to PTI founder Imran Khan’s nephew Shahrez Khan in a case pertaining to the Jinnah House attack during the May 9, 2023, riots.

ATC Judge Manzer Ali Gill announced the verdict that was reserved earlier today on Shahrez’s bail petition and ordered his release subject to paying a surety bond set at Rs100,000. Shahrez’s lawyer, Advocate Rana Mudassar, confirmed the development to Dawn.com and PTI lawyer Taimur Malik also said the same.

Lahore Police had picked up Shahrez, son of Imran’s sister Aleema Khan, from his mother’s Lahore residence on August 21. His brother Shershah Khan was also arrested the next day over similar allegations, and sent on physical remand and then to jail.

Shahrez was sent on 14-day judicial remand by the Lahore ATC on August 30.

During today’s hearing on Shahrez’s bail petition, Advocate Mudassar argued that the athlete was accused of inciting party workers, adding that the investigation was approached from multiple angles, with geo-fencing carried out as well, and yet no evidence was found against Imran’s nephew.

“Everything is clear in the challan, it mentions named and unnamed suspects but Shahrez is not mentioned at all, no investigator gave any statement. He was arrested after 28 months and his mother — the PTI founder’s sister — is raising her voice for his release. This arrest was made to suppress their voice,” he said.

The lawyer argued that Shahrez was in Chitral during the riots and several people had submitted affidavits in this regard. He said the athlete was also due to go abroad to compete in a sporting event.

Amnesty International and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan had expressed their concerns over the arrests, with the former terming them a “political witch-hunt”.

Shahrez’s wife has said her husband was in Chitral with her family on May 9, 2023, sharing purported pictures from the trip. At the same time, the PTI had challenged a video being shared of Shahrez, stating it was from the party’s public meeting in Kahna held on Sept 21, 2024, not from the 2023 riots.

Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry had defended the arrests, saying they could not be chalked off as “fake, fabricated [or] politically motivated”.

On May 9, 2023, PTI supporters, protesting Imran’s arrest, staged violent protests throughout the country, vandalising military installations and state-owned buildings, while also attacking the Lahore corps commander’s residence.

Following the riots, the state launched a crackdown on the PTI, with thousands of protesters and top party leadership arrested. Scores of PTI leaders have recently been convicted in cases over the riots and disqualified from their parliamentary roles.

At least six people were killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on a passenger vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kurram district.

Police said the assailants targeted the vehicle with automatic weapons in Ahmad Khan Kallay area of Lower Kurram while it was en route from Para Chamkani to Sadda. The bodies of the victims were shifted to a nearby hospital.

The attackers managed to flee, but a search operation was launched soon after the incident. Regional Police Officer Kohat Abbas Majid Marwat confirmed the deaths and said 12 suspects had been detained and weapons recovered during the operation.

Heavy contingents of police and security forces are conducting house-to-house searches in the area. Authorities vowed that terrorists would not be spared and that peace in the region would be maintained.

Kurram has witnessed repeated bouts of tribal violence, mostly linked to decades-old land disputes that claimed more than 130 lives last year.

After months of clashes, rival tribes reached a ceasefire in January, followed by a year-long peace accord signed in July between the Lower Kurram and Sadda tribes.

The Rawalpindi Police on Wednesday said they had arrested the principal of a private academy over the alleged rape and forced abortion of a Grade 10 student.

The student, a resident of Khayaban-i-Sir Syed of Rawalpindi’s Pirwadhai town, had lodged a first information report (FIR) with the police on Monday under Sections 338A (punishment for Isqat-i-haml) and 376i (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code, alleging that her academy’s principal raped her multiple times and forced her to have an abortion.

In her complaint, the victim alleged that the principal, who was childless, had offered to marry her while she was studying in Grade 10. She reportedly told him to approach her parents regarding the matter.

She further said that the principal started coming closer to her and assured her that he would help her get good marks in the matriculation examination, convincing her to have physical relations with him.

The complainant claimed that the man called her into his office and raped her. After a few months, she informed him that she was pregnant, but instead of marrying her, he gave her medicine for an abortion.

As per the FIR, the victim alleged that the suspect continued raping her from time to time and again made her pregnant. However, when she insisted on marriage, he refused and began subjecting her to torture.

A statement by the police on X quoted Rawalpindi Superintendent of Police Rawal Arshad as saying that the force took swift action and arrested the suspect, adding that the victim’s medical examination had also been initiated.

SP Arshad said a challan would be filed in court with solid evidence to ensure an exemplary punishment for the suspect. and real punishment will be ensured. “Violence, abuse or harassment against women and children is unacceptable,” he said.

Human Rights Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar earlier ordered an “immediate and transparent” investigation into the incident, according to a statement issued today by Tarar’s office.

The minister ordered the suspect’s immediate arrest and sought a report on the incident. “The provision of justice to the affected student should be ensured under all circumstances,” Tarar, who is also the law minister, was quoted as saying.

According to Section 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code, the punishment for rape can be a death sentence or imprisonment of not less than 10 years and not more than 25 years, or the remainder of the convict’s life, along with a fine.

In May, a sessions court in Rawalpindi sentenced a man to death for raping a woman under Section 17 of the Anti-Rape (Investigation & Trial) Act, 2021.

Rape laws in Pakistan have seen significant reforms, particularly with the Anti-Rape Ordinance 2020, which introduced special courts for expedited trials, mandated medico-legal examinations within six hours, and established a national sex offender registry.

However, systemic challenges persist, with the national level conviction rate for rape at a mere 0.5 per cent, according to a report by the Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO).

National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) Chairperson Rabiya Javeri Agha said last month that only 41pc of the women raped report it, and even out of those, many back off due to societal pressure.

Last month, the interior ministry reported that 200 of the 567 cases of sexual abuse registered in Islamabad between 2021 and June 2025 involved children.

In June, Rawalpindi police said they had arrested an Adiala jail employee who allegedly raped his 11-year-old niece in the prison’s residential colony.

The same month, a woman in the district’s Dhamial area complained to the police that she had allegedly been sexually assaulted by her landlord’s son.

This much is clear to us all: The devastating floods, first in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and now in Punjab, this monsoon season are extreme weather events. So why are we hearing people repeatedly mention that Pakistan is accusing India of making it worse by dumping its excess water into our rivers?

To understand how dam water release works, The Express Tribune spoke with several experts.

Dr Hassaan F Khan, an urban water expert at Tufts University, explained that every dam has two main systems: regular release gates and spillways. The regular gates are used for water supply needs, such as agriculture, and are considered normal releases. “But when a dam fills to its maximum capacity, water cannot be held back because of the risk of structural damage,” he said. “At that point, the spillways are opened to release the extra water. If not, the dam could collapse.”

 

According to Dr Hassaan, India released water from multiple dams in recent days as they had reached their capacity. “That is what the Indian side is claiming,” he said. “While Pakistan cannot verify this directly, it makes sense given the context. Such releases are not unusual.”

Both extreme rainfall and weather played a role in this year’s flooding in the region. “India saw record-breaking rains, especially in Himachal Pradesh, which sent large flows of water into rivers,” he said. “India was also forced to release water into the Sutlej and Ravi. Prime Minister Modi had previously said India would not allow even a drop of water from these rivers to flow into Pakistan, but when storage is impossible, the water has to be flushed out. They prefer to store water for use in the low-flow season of November and December.”

In response to our question, Dr Hassaan stressed there is no evidence that India deliberately released water to harm Pakistan. “Speculation is possible, but we have never found proof of intentional action,” he said. “Since the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, India no longer shares detailed data as before. Now, only brief notifications are sent through the Indian High Commissioner, which is inadequate compared to past agreements. The early warning system is much weaker now.”

Muhammad Umer Karim, a senior researcher and water resource specialist, explained the natural hydrology or water system cycle for this area as background. “In our region, water freezes in winter as ice and glaciers, then thaws in the summer. Combined with monsoon rains, this increases the river flows. Melting glaciers add to this volume. Spillways are opened only when dams are full. For the rest of the year, water is gradually taken out through canals for drinking and irrigation. This time, Indian dams were overflowing, which also led to flooding in the eastern rivers.”

Environmental lawyer Ahmed Rafay Alam pointed out that dam infrastructure on both sides is “essentially the same”. India has three major dams on the Jhelum, Beas, and Ravi. Pakistan has Mangla and Tarbela dams. “Both countries store monsoon and glacier water for winter crops, and both sets of dams were built by American companies. Their designs and operations are essentially the same.”

Photo: Ibrahim Yahya

This year, however, the situation became critical. “The Pong Dam on the Beas, the Bhakra Dam on the Sutlej near Himachal Pradesh, and the Madhopur Headworks on the Ravi reached dangerous levels between August 23 and 25,” he said. “To protect infrastructure, India opened the spillways, and some gates of the Madhopur barrage even collapsed due to water pressure, causing one death. This is what we call a ‘controlled release’ of water.”

Alam said that in India, dam power production is controlled by the federal government, but irrigation and domestic water supply are a provincial responsibility. This is why he believes that New Delhi could have handled the crisis better. “The Thein Dam on the Ravi is in Punjab state where Congress is strong,” he said. “The BJP-led federal government did not share timely data or issue warnings. As a result, Indian Punjab suffered major damage. Around 500 villages were submerged. Now, Punjab’s government is demanding an inquiry, accusing the BJP of deliberately letting Punjab drown. This shows that Pakistan was not the only country hit – Indian villages were also devastated.”

These experts clarified that the main floodwaters do not flow straight from India into Pakistan. Instead, they first pass through several Indian towns and villages, travelling 100–150 km before crossing the border. “Indian water releases added to Pakistan’s misery,” Alam said, “but there is no evidence they were intentional. India itself suffered similar destruction.”

Dr Daanish Mustafa, a professor of water resource geography at King’s College London, added: “Water release occurs when the safe design capacity of a reservoir is exceeded. No infrastructure can stop the peak flow of monsoon water. More rain means more water – it’s that simple. In fact, India has faced even greater destruction than Pakistan, because by the time the water reaches us, its force is already reduced.”

• Gunmen open fire on vehicle in Sadda area.
• Bodies shifted to tehsil headquarters hospital. 
• MNA Hameed Hussain strongly condemns attack.
  

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LOWER KURRAM: At least six people were killed when unidentified assailants opened fire on a passenger vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Lower Kurram area, police said on Wednesday.

The incident occurred in the Ahmad Khan Kale area when the vehicle, travelling from Para Chamkani to Sadda, came under attack by the attackers.

According to the local police, the motive behind the shooting was not immediately clear, adding that a heavy police contingent was dispatched to the area as an investigation was underway.

Police shifted the bodies to the tehsil headquarters hospital in Sadda for medico-legal formalities. 

Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Hameed Hussain strongly condemned the attack. He said such incidents in a peaceful area like Ahmad Khan Kale were incomprehensible and alleged that the assault appeared to be part of an organised conspiracy to spread unrest. He urged the local community to foil such attempts and support efforts for peace.

Separately, leaders of the Turi Bangash tribes also denounced the incident and called on the government to conduct a thorough investigation and take action against those responsible.

Kurram has been plagued by tribal violence fueled by decades-old land disputes. The conflict, which claimed at least 130 lives last year, saw a significant escalation in recent years.

A ceasefire agreement was reached in January this year, followed by a year-long peace deal signed in July between the Lower Kurram and Sadda tribes.