NOWSHERA, Pakistan – The death toll from massive flooding in Pakistan surged past 800 in Saturday and could reach into the thousands in coming days as floodwaters recede in the hard-hit northwest, authorities said.

"The death toll could go as high as 3,000 because the level of destruction has been so great," Mujahid Khan, chief spokesman for Pakistan’s largest rescue service, said by telephone from Peshawar.

Saturday afternoon, 817 people had been confirmed dead, he said. In neighboring eastern Afghanistan, 64 others were reported dead.

The damage to roads, bridges and communications networks was hindering rescuers, while the threat of disease loomed as some evacuees arrived in camps with fever, diarrhea and skin problems.

Even for a country used to tragedy, the scale of this past week’s flooding has been shocking. Monsoon rains come every year, but rarely with such fury.

Compounding the tragedy was the country’s worst-ever plane crash, caused by heavy rains, which killed 152 people in Islamabad on Wednesday.

As waterways swelled in Pakistan’s northwest, people sought ever-shrinking high ground or grasped for trees and fences to avoid getting swept away as buildings crumbled into raging rivers.

The United Nations estimated that 1 million people across Pakistan were affected in some way by the disaster.

More than 30,000 Pakistani army troops had evacuated 19,000 trapped people by Saturday night, said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas.

"The level of devastation is so widespread, so large," he said. "It is quite possible that in many areas there is damage, deaths, which may not have been reported."

In the Nowshera area, men, women and children sat on roofs in hopes of air or boat rescues. Many had little more than the clothes on their backs.

"There are very bad conditions," said Amjad Ali, a rescue worker in the area. "They have no water, no food."

In the town of Charsadda, Nabi Gul looked at a pile of rubble where his house once stood.

"I built this house with my life’s earnings and hard work, and the river has washed it away," he said. "Now I wonder, will I be able to rebuild it?"

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – The death toll in three days of flooding in Pakistan reached at least 267 on Friday, rescue and government officials said, as rains bloated rivers, submerged villages, and triggered landslides. The rising toll of the monsoon rains underscore the poor infrastructure in impoverished Pakistan, where under-equipped rescue workers were struggling to reach people stranded in far-flung villages.

Pakistani TV showed striking images of people clinging to fences and other stationary items as water at times gushed over their heads. The northwest appeared to be the hardest hit, and Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for the province, said it was the worst flooding in the region since 1929.

At least 245 people died in various parts of that province over the last three days, said Mujahid Khan of the Edhi Foundation, a privately run rescue service that operates morgues and ambulances across the South Asian country.

In Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, at least 22 people had been confirmed dead as of Thursday evening, the area’s prime minister, Sardar Attique Khan, told reporters.

The tolls from the deluge were expected to rise because many people were still missing. Poor weather this week also may have been a factor in Wednesday’s Airblue plane crash that killed 152 people in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. In the Swat Valley, residents were forced to trudge through knee-deep water in some streets.

A newly constructed part of a dam in the Charsadda district collapsed, while the U.N. said it had reports that 5,000 homes were underwater in that area. Hussain estimated 400,000 people were stranded in various northwest villages.

"A rescue operation using helicopters cannot be conducted due to the bad weather, while there are only 48 rescue boats available for rescue," he said on Thursday.

Pakistan’s poorest residents are often the ones living in flood-prone areas because they can’t afford safer land.

Southwest Baluchistan province has also been hit hard by the recent rains. Last week, flash floods in that region killed at least 41 people and swept away thousands of homes. The U.N. statement Thursday said 150,000 people were affected there.

The U.N. said Punjab province in Pakistan’s east was also hit by some flooding. Crops were soaked in farmlands throughout the country. The U.N. said the humanitarian community was trying to put together a proper response, but the rains were making many roads impassable, complicating efforts to assess needs.

MINGORA, Pakistan — An apparent suicide bombing near a bus terminal in Pakistan’s Swat Valley killed five people and wounded at least 58 on Thursday, officials said, a sign that Islamist militants remain active in the northwest region despite a massive army operation. The explosion went off around noon in Mingora, the main town in the one-time tourist haven that was largely overrun by Taliban militants in 2007. Pakistani TV footage showed vehicles bent and twisted due to the force of the blast. Some men were desperately trying to open the doors of a car to reach a woman and man sitting in the front who were bloodied and appeared unconscious.

The area struck was crowded, so the death toll could rise significantly. Senior police official Qazi Ghulam Farooq said five people died, including two women, and that officials believed a suicide bomber was involved. At least 58 people were wounded, he said. The Pakistan military launched its biggest operation against the Taliban in Swat in 2009 after a failed attempt at a peace deal that included pledges to impose Islamic law in the area. The operation forced some 2 million people to flee, but after a few months, the army said it had taken control and many of the refugees returned home. Still, violence has occasionally flared in Swat, shaking people’s confidence. A handful of targeted killings of anti-Taliban elders in particular has worried those who fear the insurgents are staging a comeback in the valley.

In recent weeks, several major suicide attacks have shaken Pakistan. Last week, a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Mohmand tribal region, killing at least 102 people in the deadliest attack in the U.S.-allied nation this year. The attacks come as Washington is pushing Pakistan to do even more to root out militant groups that use its soil to plan attacks on Western troops across the border in Afghanistan. The U.S. has also launched more than 100 missile strikes against Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal area along the Afghan border. The attacks have been especially frequent in North Waziristan, the home base of the al-Qaida-linked group led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Siraj. One Thursday evening, three suspected U.S. missiles destroyed a house in North Waziristan’s Mada Khel area, killing five people and wounding two, said two intelligence officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media on the record.

 Pakistan officially condemns the missile strikes but is believed to secretly assist the covert, CIA-run program. Militants have responded to the strikes by assassinating tribesmen whom they accuse of spying, including two men whose bullet riddled bodies were found Thursday in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, said an intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. The bodies were accompanied by notes saying they were killed for spying on the Taliban, he said.
 

12 July 2010 

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced his strong condemnation of a suicide bombing at a religious shrine in the Pakistani city of Lahore that has reportedly killed more than 40 people and left dozens more injured.

“The deliberate targeting of a crowded place of worship makes this particularly vicious,” Mr. Ban said. Media reports say there were two separate explosions last night at the Data Ganj Baksh shrine, which is holy to Sufi Muslims. The bombings caused major damage to the complex.

“The Secretary-General extends his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government and people of Pakistan,” today’s statement said.

Pakistan has been beset by deadly bombings and sectarian attacks in recent months, and in May three independent United Nations human rights experts issued a warning about the safety of religious minorities in the South Asian country.