Severe floods strike Pakistan and India's Punjab, displacing millions

Severe monsoon rains and swollen rivers have unleashed catastrophic flooding across large parts of Pakistan and India’s Punjab region, killing hundreds, displacing millions and prompting mass evacuations and emergency operations since late August. The crisis has concentrated along the transboundary Sutlej, Ravi and Chenab river systems, where authorities on both sides of the border have scrambled to protect towns, farmland and critical infrastructure.

Officials said the scale of the disaster remained fluid. Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority and provincial agencies reported hundreds of deaths and widespread destruction across Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and other regions. Official tallies varied, with some government updates putting the nationwide death toll in the 800s and other counts by national and provincial authorities exceeding 850. Provincial figures show Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has suffered the heaviest losses, while Punjab has recorded hundreds of fatalities and large numbers of injured, officials said.

In Pakistan’s eastern Punjab, provincial authorities described an unprecedented hydrological emergency as all three major rivers flowed at exceptionally...