Page 5 - AHATA

A6 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 27 august 2025
Mass evacuations in eastern Pakistan as India releases water from

swollen rivers

By BABAR DOGAR and been displaced in the In-
MUNIR AHMED dian-administered Jammu
Associated Press area.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Many of the region’s rivers
Pakistan has evacuated and tributaries eventually
tens of thousands of people flow into Pakistan and the
to safer areas after neigh- part of Kashmir it controls.
boring India released water On Tuesday, Indian officials
from overflowing dams and said most rivers and streams
swollen rivers into low-lying were overflowing, with
border regions, officials said muddy waters inundating
Tuesday. homes in several places
The move came a day af- and damaging roads and
ter New Delhi alerted Islam- bridges. Water levels in mul-
abad about possible cross- tiple rivers continued to rise
border flooding, marking in the region.
the first public diplomatic According to the Indian
contact between the two Meteorological Depart-
nuclear-armed rivals in ment, rains should persist
months. until late Tuesday.
Pakistan’s National Disas- In 2014, Kashmir saw its
ter Management Authority worst monsoon flooding in
said it had issued an ad- a century, leaving 500 peo-
vance alert to its Punjabi In this photo released by Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, rescue workers ple dead across the region.
evacuate villagers from a low-lying area due to rising water level in the Sutlej River following
counterparts about a surge neighbouring India released water from overflowing dams, in Bahawalnagar a district in Pakistan’s This week’s flood alert was
in the Sutlej River and the Punjab province bordering India, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. conveyed to Pakistan
risk of flooding, and that through diplomatic chan-
evacuations from various The NDMA said authori- ter both South Asian coun- and that many of the vic- nels rather than the Indus
districts in the eastern Pun- ties have urged residents tries. tims were living along natu- Waters Commission, the
jab province were under- to stay away from rivers, In Pakistan’s northwest, ral water pathways. permanent mechanism
way. streams and low-lying ar- many residents com- Nationwide, floods trig- created under the 1960
In a statement, it said res- eas, avoid unnecessary plained this month that they gered by seasonal rains World Bank-brokered Indus
cuers evacuated more travel, and follow alerts is- had received no warning have killed more than 800 Waters Treaty, which was
than 14,000 people from sued through the media, before flash floods struck people in Pakistan since suspended by New Delhi
Kasur, a district in Pun- mobile phones and the Buner district, killing more June 26. after the April killing of 26
jab province, while over NDMA’s disaster alert app. than 300 people. Officials In Kashmir, which is split be- tourists in Indian-controlled
89,000 were moved to saf- The latest flood alert and have said the devastation tween the two sides and Kashmir.
er ground from the city of evacuation drive by Paki- was caused by a sudden claimed by both in its en- Pakistan says India cannot
Bahawalnagar, near the stan comes as heavy mon- cloudburst, which could tirety, at least 65 have also scrap the treaty unilater-
Indian border. soon rains continue to bat- not have been predicted, died and hundreds have ally. q

Bolivia’s long-ruling party was almost eliminated from Congress,

final vote results show

By PAOLA FLORES and gress. Centrist and right- year. wins will have no trouble Chamber of Deputies to
ISABEL DEBRE wing parties took the most On Oct. 19, Paz will run gaining leverage in both enact their plans to resolve
Associated Press votes. off against Jorge “Tuto” the 36-seat Senate and the country’s worst eco-
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Vot- “These elections really Quiroga, a right-wing for- the less powerful, 130-seat nomic crisis in 40 years.q
ers in Bolivia practically spelled the end of the mer president who led his
threw the long-governing MAS,” said Diego von Va- coalition to almost 27% of
party out of Congress, a cano, an expert in Bolivian votes, the Supreme Elec-
final count released Tues- politics at Texas A&M Uni- toral Tribune announced
day showed, after presi- versity, using the Spanish Tuesday.
dential and parliamentary acronym for the ruling par- On the basis of the offi-
elections this month her- ty. “As a party, as a move- cial numbers, neither Paz’s
alded a tectonic shift in ment, it’s defunct. This is a Christian Democratic Party
this Andean country. new period in Bolivian his- nor Quiroga’s Libre Party
In a devastating defeat, tory.” has enough lawmakers to
the Movement Toward The Aug. 17 general elec- push through their propos-
Socialism party which has tion delivered a shocking als alone, with the CDP
ruled for much of the last 32% of votes to centrist taking 70 out of 166 total
two decades and held Sen. Rodrigo Paz after a congressional seats and Li-
a supermajority in both campaign dominated by bre taking 53.
houses of Parliament lost concerns over Bolivia’s Crucially, for the first time A person walks through Plaza Murillo outside Congress in La
its 21 Senate seats and all dire fuel shortages, a scar- since Bolivia’s 2002 parlia-
but two of its 75 seats in city of U.S. dollars and infla- mentary elections, which- Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025.
the lower house of Con- tion on track to hit 30% this ever opposition candidate Associated Press