QUETA: Though the intrusion of fresh torrents into Nasirabad and Jaffarabad districts from Sindh is raising the scale of devastation in eastern Balochistan, the food basket of the province, international donor agencies and NGOs have yet to reach there to launch rescue and relief operations.

The situation in Jaffarabad district is becoming alarming as a huge torrent has entered the district from neighbouring areas of Sindh. Water level in Dera Allahyar, the district headquarters of Jaffarabad district, has risen from six to seven feet.

“About 70,000 cusecs of fresh torrent has entered Jaffarabad from Kandhkot-Kashmore district of Sindh, causing surge in water level to seven feet and playing havoc over a vast area,” an official told Dawn.

Naseer Nasar, Deputy Commissioner of Jaffarabad, has issued an alert for the residents of Usta Mohammad as water has been hitting the flood protective embankment of the town. The dyke has developed four breaches.

The fresh torrent is a danger not only to Usta Mohammad but also to Tambo, Qaboola and Jhal Magsi towns as it is moving fast towards low-lying areas.

Sources said that the irrigation department had made four more cuts in Dera Allahyar bypass to divert the flood to low-lying areas.

Large tracts in Dera Allahyar, Rojhan Jamali and adjacent areas have already been inundated.

Usta Mohammad is already cut off from rest of the province as the irrigation staff have applied a cut into the main road connecting the town with neighbouring areas, between Khanpur and Cattle Form areas.

Eastern parts of Jaffarabad district have been worst affected by recent heavy rains and hill torrents. Sohbatpur town has been invaded by four to six feet water that has rendered thousands of people homeless.

Many people have reportedly been killed in incidents of roof collapse. “Hundreds of mud houses have been washed away in the Sohbatpur area where floodwater has entered government buildings. Hence, displaced people have no place to take shelter,” Nasibullah Khosa, an elder, told Dawn.

He said thousands of people were still marooned in lakes created by floodwater and waiting to be rescued.

The death toll has crossed 90 and more deaths are feared as a large number of people have gone missing in Jaffarabad and Nasirabad districts.

Although the army and the Frontier Corps have launched rescue efforts and have been shifting flood victims to safe areas in helicopters and boats and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority is sending relief goods to the affected area, the victims are not satisfied with the slow pace of the rescue and relief operations.

The Commander of the Southern Command, Lt Gen Mohammad Alam Khan Khattak, along with the Chief Secretary of Balochistan, Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad, took an aerial view of the flood-hit areas of Nasirabad and Jaffarabad.

During a stopover at Dera Murad Jamali, Brig Kamran Khan gave the visiting officials a briefing about the rescue and relief operation jointly launched by the provincial government, the PDMA, the army and the Frontier Corps.

He said over 5,000 patients had so far been treated in medial camps in Dera Allahyar, Dera Murad Jamali and other areas. “Some 3,000 people have been shifted to safe places in army’s six helicopters and 18 boats,” he added.

PROTEST: On the other hand, flood victims staged demonstrations in different areas of Nasirabad and Jaffarabad districts in protest against slow pace of rescue and relief work.Irritated by the absence of relief work, hundreds of angry people blocked the portion of the National Highway that connects Sindh and Balochistan in the Mangoli area.

Tens of thousands of people have reportedly been forced to squat on the roads and banks of canals after the floods washed away their mud houses and inundated over 1.2 million acres of land.

Train services connecting Balochistan to other provinces, suspended on Sept 9, have not been restored yet and the road link with Sindh and Punjab has also been disrupted away by flood.

The agricultural belt of Balochistan has remained cut off from the rest of the country for the last nine days as the railway track is submerged between Shikarpur and Jacobabad while mud beneath the track has been swept away by water.