Number of casualties in Balochistan increases to 203

While flash floods and torrential rains continue to devastate many areas of Balochistan, without any rail or road connection between Quetta and the rest of the country, despite all the efforts made in recent days, the provincial government asked the Centre to provide a special program of Rs60 billion for the repair of infrastructure and rehabilitation of flood-affected families.

Authorities have put the death toll throughout the province at 205 after flood waters swept five people near the Saranan area in the Pishin district on Tuesday and a 5-year-old girl was found dead in the Syed Hameed River in the Saranan region. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) released the death report late Wednesday night.

The track connecting Balochistan to other provinces has been flooded in recent days, resulting in the suspension of passenger and freight train services while rail officials believed that recovery would take a few more days.

The rail authorities said that no train could leave Quetta for Karachi, Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the last three days. “Not all inbound and outbound trains have gone to their destination,” said one official, adding that engineers and other employees of Pakistan Railways would check the track once the flood waters had receded and rail service would resume between Quetta and the rest of the country with permission. “The restoration of the railway service will take another couple of days,” said the official.

“About 5 km from the main railway line is still underwater,” said a senior local government official, adding that road traffic was faced with a similar situation.

In the meantime, the Baluchistan government sent a resolution to Islamabad that was recently passed by the provincial assembly. “Baluchistan, which has few resources, is unable to rehabilitate the destroyed areas and compensate people who have suffered huge financial losses,” the resolution said.

It called on the provincial government to request from the federal government a special package of at least 50 to 60 billion Rupees for the rehabilitation of 32 destroyed districts and waive all utility and farm loan invoices in districts that had been declared disaster-affected areas.