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Pakistani authorities breach a strategic dyke in flood-affected Punjab to ease pressure on flood defences downstream and protect urban areas. The BBC writes:
More than 700,000 villagers have been forced to flee their homes.
Much of the water is reaching Pakistan from Indian-administered Kashmir where flood levels are now falling.
There have been chaotic scenes at one of the region's main airports, Srinagar, as tourists and migrant workers struggle to leave. The death toll in the two countries has passed 450, with troops deployed to rescue people and provide assistance.
The flooding is the worst Indian-administered Kashmir has seen in decades. Officials say 400,000 people are stranded there and at least 200 people have died. Pakistan has not experienced floods as devastating since 2010 - officials say 254 people have died in the past few days.
The devastating floods resulting from Kashmir’s worst rains in half a century claimed more lives on Tuesday, with the total death toll now breaching 400 and local people decrying officials for failing to adequately deal with the catastrophe. Time reports:
Several thousand people are still trapped on rooftops in the restive Himalayan region waiting to be rescued, reports Reuters, and local residents have criticized both the Indian and Pakistani authorities for a lackluster response to the crisis.
Indian news channel NDTV reported that some rescue workers were even attacked by furious locals. Although India’s metrological department had forecast heavy rains in Kashmir last week, the Central Water Commission in charge of issuing flood advisories apparently did not warn the local authorities.
“We were all caught off guard because there was not a single warning issued by the weather office. The flash floods took us by surprise,” an official from India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) told Reuters in New Delhi on the condition of anonymity.
Mohammad Irfan Dar, a New Delhi-based independent filmmaker who originally hails from Srinagar, tells TIME that efforts to organize private relief donations have been thwarted by the authorities.
“In Delhi, most of us are focused on raising awareness, organizing relief and gathering supplies,” he said. “The biggest challenge we are facing is the lack of communication from the state.” Dar’s says he knows of between 300 and 500 relief volunteers across the Indian capital, some of whom have been dispatched to Kashmir to coordinate efforts there.
Air India has offered to take essential supplies for free but only has limited capacity. “Drinking water, especially, is a huge problem right now,” he adds.
