Thousands trapped in Pakistan’s flood-hit south

PAKISTAN: In Pakistan’s fertile south, a grim-faced soldier found himself in a standoff with 100 flood-stricken protesters demanding help for their communities marooned by the surging water.

“We won’t leave until you come with us to save our families,” a defiant Ali Mohammad, 27, told the soldier. “Hundreds of our villagers are trapped in the flood waters but we can’t find anyone to help us rescue them.” A year after Pakistan’s worst ever floods, the lush southern lands of Sindh are inundated once more, and angry villagers were desperate for help for their families who had escaped several feet of floodwater by sitting on their roofs.

A heated argument ended with a promise that the army would return to help the thousands of marooned residents in Tando Allahyar district, one of the areas worst affected by the deluge.

“We are going to save people in another town this delay will risk their lives,” the soldier said.

Official figures show the floods have killed nearly 300 people and affected 5.8 million since monsoon rains began last month leaving hundreds of thousands living under open skies on hills and along highways.

The number affected is far lower than the 21 million hit by the record floods in 2010, when nearly one billion dollars was given in foreign aid and civilian authorities were accused of a woeful response to the disaster.

Now with Sindh province worst-hit last year again swamped and the response not keeping pace Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has cancelled a visit to the UN General Assembly in New York to see the aid effort in progress. AFP