Baloch Yakjehti Committee condemns Gwadar authorities' attempts to sabotage flood relief operations

"The Gwadar administration has attempted to sabotage the flood relief camp of BYC at Javed Complex Gwadar," posted Baloch Yakjehti Committee on X.

BYC, along with several volunteers, have been helping the people of Gwadar by organising relief work. They accused the Gwadar authorities of insufficient response to floods. The port city had recently suffered severe floods after heavy rainfall in the area.

In an official post on 'X', the BYC stated, "On one hand, the city of Gwadar and its surrounding areas are completely submerged in the flood; instead of helping the people, the government authorities are threatening those who are engaged in relief and rehabilitation activities and attempting to sabotage their efforts."

The same post of BYC further stated: "We want to make it clear to the Gwadar administration that immediate notice should be taken of this illegal and unconstitutional act by Gwadar's Tehsildar, Shehak Munir, SHO Mohsin and DSP Imam Yaqoob, Otherwise, we will announce our immediate actions in Gwadar City against it."

https://twitter.com/BalochYakjehtiC/status/1766038833400017019

In a recent press conference, the BYC put forward its assessment of the damage suffered by Gwadar after the recent floods. The conference underlined several challenges, struggles, and the reasons behind them.

During the press conference, Baloch leader Maharang Baloch stated that BYC had surveyed the port city, including areas like Gwadar Old City, Pishukan, Dagaro, Passo, Jiwani, Paleri, and others, for five days.

She further stated that, according to their survey, these areas are especially affected by the floods. The flood has now created a life-threatening problem for the locals of these areas, she added.

"Several people in these areas are now facing survival problems and are forced to live their lives under the open sky, and Paleri is the most affected area currently. And several people belonging to the areas of Jiwani, Paleri and Pishukan are forced to live under the open sky and the local fishermen community has suffered extreme financial losses, as fishing is now impossible in Gwadar for local fishermen, which has been the source of income for this community for hundreds of years, "she added in her statement.

"The water after these floods has entered the civilian areas, because of which relief, food, and drinking water supplies are not reaching these areas. The people living in these areas are now forced to drink the flood water," Maharang Baloch stated at the BYC conference.

She stated, "The flood that has hit Gwadar this time is not at all natural, but is a result of wrong policy formation and infrastructure development.

Additionally, this flood is also the fault of the weather department of the area, as they failed to provide this critical information to the locals on time. After witnessing the condition of life in Gwadar, it can be deduced that only the sea is important for the government in Gwadar and not the people.".

"The claims of infrastructure development made by Pakistan internationally are totally baseless. And the policy that the country implemented in Gwadar is not for the locals, but is just for the flourishing of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. These policies have been destroying the lives of locals and are just supporting the suppressors. The infrastructure for CPEC is of such high quality that the poor infrastructure given to the locals has now been destroyed. All this is happening when the foreigners are enjoying the rain sitting in their lavish rooms of the Pearl-Continental Hotel Gwadar," Maharang stated during the press conference.

According to the BYC survey, people are helping each other in desperate times. The height of irresponsibility on the government's part is that the locals had to manage fuel by themselves for the machines that were given to pump out water from their homes.

The people who desperately wait for assistance said that their area was impacted due to the flow of rainwater from three spots together. However, the authorities did not take a single step to stop the drainage into the populated spots.

The residents said, "We can neither leave our homes nor wait for the authorities any longer," The News International reported, citing Geo News. Several people stepped out of their homes to share their ordeal, which exposed the extreme negligence of authorities, adding to their troubles. (ANI)