Party leadership expresses deep sorrow over the loss of precious lives in Dain (Ishkoman), Khalti (Gupis), Bunardas (Chilas), Danyore, Swat, Dir, Buner, Bajaur and other areas
Special Correspondent
Islamabad: The Awami Workers Party (AWP) has condemned the completely haphazard response of the ruling hybrid regime to terrifying flash-floods in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), Kashmir and the mountainous regions of Chitral, Swat, Buner, Dir, Bajaur and other parts of Pakhtunkhwa, resulting in the loss of over one hundred lives, displacement of hundreds of people, and destruction of their houses, orchards, livelihood and major infrastructure, collapse of bridges and most road networks as well as electricity, communication and water supplies systems.
It also expresses sympathy with the dozens who have lost their lives in Dain (Ishkoman), Khalti (Gupis), Danyore (Gilgit), Bunardas (Chilas), Baltistan, Chitral, Bajaur, Swat, Dir, Buner, Kashmir and beyond. The floods have also wreaked havoc in Hunza District’s Hassanabad, Gulmit, Shimshal, Chipursan, Astor, Haramosh, and Baltistan Division.
Hundreds of tourists and locals remain stranded at multiple locations, desperately awaiting relief and rescue, yet government officials are nowhere to be seen. With no official support, residents have been forced to risk their own lives, providing aid to stranded people and tourists, and working tirelessly to restore vital communication links on their own.
The party has demanded immediate action as more flooding is anticipated, warning that further negligence will lead to even greater loss of life and complete suspension of organised life and communication links.
The federal, G-B and K-P governments must declare the affected regions as calamity-stricken and undertake relief operations accordingly.
AWP secretary-general Bakhshal Thalho has said that despite clear indications that destructive profiteering and neoliberal development policies are worsening permanent glacier melt and exacerbating already warming temperatures in G-B and other highland regions, successive governments have not attempted to overhaul long-term state policy, instead giving further incentives to big hoteliers, mining companies and the unbridled construction of army-run companies like the FWO and NLC and Green Tourism.
GB’s economy has been completely militarised, its ecologies destroyed by unregulated tourism and its politically aware youth criminalised for contesting anti-people legislations like the recently passed Land Reform Act. A similar process of criminalisation is ongoing in K-P in the face of resistance to the Mines and Minerals Act, militarisation and ecocide.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) had already issued repeated warnings about glacial lake outburst flooding, but no other government agency has taken any preventive measures, engaging only in performative ‘rescue’ missions after much death and destruction has already taken place.
Meanwhile Bajaur, which has also been devastated by flash-floods, is being ravaged by a military operation which has displaced tens of thousands and killed countless civilians.
The AWP reiterates its demand for all such unaccountable operations to be halted immediately and all public resources to be directed to flood-affected regions, restoration of road and communications networks and assistance to families of the dead and displaced.
Social activist Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr. expressed solidarity with the affected people of Gilgit-Baltistan in a video message. He urged the people of Sindh and others to stand with the affected people and provide them with help.
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