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Journalism of Courage
More than 100 people were stranded as floodwaters from Ravi River inundated the Kartarpur Corridor, including Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, in Pakistan Punjab’s Narowal district, officials said on Wednesday.“The entire Kartarpur
Corridor complex, including Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, has been submerged by high floodwater,” Saifullah Khokar, head of the Kartarpur Corridor Project Management Unit, told PTI.
He said the trapped officials were being rescued by boats and a helicopter.
According to Narowal Deputy Commissioner Hasan Raza, hundreds of residents have also been evacuated from flooded areas after India released water into the Ravi, causing the river to swell beyond capacity.
The Ravi River, which can hold 150,000 cusecs, was flowing at 155,000 cusecs at Kot Nain in Shakargarh tehsil, he added.
On Sunday, India communicated flood warnings to Pakistan through diplomatic channels on “humanitarian grounds”.
It was the first known official contact between India and Pakistan since a four-day conflict between the two sides in May.
A day after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, India took a series of punitive measures against Pakistan that included putting the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 in “abeyance”. Usually, flood alerts are shared through the Indus Water Commission.
Thousands of acres of farmland have been submerged, damaging rice crops and animal fodder, officials said.
Raza stated that heavy rains over the past 24 hours and overflow from drains in Auj, Bayan and Dek further worsened the situation, inundating villages and crop fields, forcing people to migrate to safer places.
Nearly two lakh people have been evacuated from flood-prone areas to safer places across Punjab till Tuesday as authorities issued warnings and alerts regarding rising water levels in almost all eastern rivers.
