GILGIT, June 23: Hundreds of people living in low-lying areas of Gilgit and Ghizer districts along the Gilgit river have been asked to vacate their homes as the water level in the river has been at the danger level for three days. The river fed by hundreds of steams has caused erosion at several points on the Gilgit-Ghizer road in Puniyal and Gupis tehsils of Ghizer.

There has been no word about any rescue or relief work in the region so far.

People in Gahkuch, the district headquarters of Ghizer, 68 kms west of here, said that they were asked to vacate their homes after the flood water had already inundated their farms and flour mills, stopping grinding of wheat. There has been no supply of flour for three days.

Local journalist Durdana Sher told Dawn that a number of homes had been inundated in Gahkuch and people were not getting any help from any quarter. Local residents Soram Shah, Abdul Wali, Ali Madad Shah, Mir Tajammul, Mehboob and Nafas Shah told this correspondent that they were living in the open.

They said they had approached the deputy commissioner and requested him to provide tents but no action was taken despite the fact that the administration in Ghizer had hundreds of tents in stock for the Shandur gala beginning next month.

The rising water level is posing a threat to a suspension-bridge linking Gahkuch with Chilpee and it has been closed to traffic, causing immense hardship to people.

The RCC bridge in Gulmutee is also threatened by the flood and any damage to it will cut off most parts of Ghizer from the rest of the country.