Flash floods leave 34 dead in Indian-controlled Kashmir as over 150,000
are displaced in Pakistan
[August 27, 2025]
By MUNIR AHMED and SHEIKH SAALIQ
NEW DELHI (AP) — Intense rains have lashed parts of Pakistan and India
and triggered flash floods and landslides in Indian-controlled Kashmir’s
Jammu region, leaving at least 34 people dead, officials said Wednesday.
A section of a mountainside in Jammu collapsed and hit a popular Hindu
pilgrimage route following heavy rains in the Katra area late Tuesday.
Devotees were trekking on foot to reach the hilltop temple, which is one
of the most visited shrines in northern India, officials said.
The bodies of most of the pilgrimage victims were recovered from under
the debris of stones, boulders and rocks, according to disaster
management official Mohammed Irshad, who said at least 18 people were
injured and transported to hospitals.
Rescue teams scoured the Himalayan area Wednesday for missing people and
the pilgrimage to the shrine has been suspended, Irshad said.
Authorities in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province on Wednesday called
for army assistance in rescue and relief efforts after torrential rains
caused major rivers to swell, inundating villages and displacing more
than 150,000 people, officials said.
Rescuers evacuated more than 20,000 people overnight from the outskirts
of Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, which also faced the risk of
flood. Those evacuated from areas near Lahore were living along the bed
of the Ravi river, said Irfan Ali Kathia, director-general of the Punjab
Disaster Management Authority.
Mass evacuations began earlier this week in six districts of Punjab
after heavier-than-normal monsoon rains and the release of water from
overflowing dams in neighboring India trigged flash floods in low-lying
border regions, Kathia said.
Forecasters predicted rain will continue across the region this week.
Heavy downpours and flash floods in the Himalayan region have killed
nearly 100 people in August.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday praised authorities for the
timely evacuations to avoid losses and said relief supplies and tents
are being provided to flood-effected people, according to a government
statement.
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A rescue worker helps a family board in a boat to evacuate them from
a flooded area in Dhoop Sarhi village in Kasur district, Pakistan,
Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, due to the rising water level in Sutlej
River, following neighboring India releasing water from overflowing
dams. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Kathia warned floodwaters in the Ravi, Chenab and Sutlej rivers were
rising dangerously and many villages were inundated in Kasur, Okara,
Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Vehari and Sialkot districts.
Rescuers have used boats to evacuate people to safer places this
week, Kathia said. India alerted Pakistan about possible
cross-border flooding through diplomatic channels rather than the
Indus Waters Commission, which is the permanent mechanism under the
1960 World Bank brokered Indus Waters Treaty.
New Delhi suspended the commission’s work after the April killing of
26 tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir, though Islamabad insists
India cannot unilaterally scrap the treaty.
The latest flood warning comes as rescuers with sniffer dogs search
for more than 150 people who have been reported missing this month
after cloudburst flooding killed over 300 residents in three
villages in northwestern Buner district.
Floods have killed more than 800 people in Pakistan since late June.
Scientists say climate change is fueling heavier monsoon rains in
South Asia, raising fears of a repeat of a 2022 weather disaster
that struck a third of Pakistan and killed 1,739 people.
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Ahmed reported from Islamabad and Saaliq reported from New Delhi.
Associated Press writer Babar Dogar contributed from Lahore,
Pakistan.
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