India responsible for Pakistan floods: Hafeez Saeed

Hafeez Saeed, mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai attacks on Monday blamed India for severe flood crisis in Pakistan. Saeed described Modi’s offer to help flood victims as equivalent to rubbing salt on the wounds of Pakistani and Kashmiri people.

Hafeez Saeed, mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai attacks and chief of Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD), on Monday blamed India for severe flood crisis in Pakistan.

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He blamed dams constructed in ‘Indian Kashmir’ and water-terrorism as reasons responsible for the flood disaster that had claimed over 200 lives so far.

“On one hand, Indian government has discharged water in rivers without notification and has given false information, and on the other, is ironically offering help,” he said, adding “we consider this an act of open mischief.”

Saeed described Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s offer to help flood victims as equivalent to rubbing salt on the wounds of the Pakistani and Kashmiri people.

The Falah e Insaniyat Foundation, JuD’s relief wing, had launched a motorboat service in flood-affected areas and was leading the rescue and relief efforts.

JuD, seen as a front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba militant outfit, is known in Pakistan for the relief work done by its humanitarian arm after natural disasters, particularly the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.

Meanwhile, in a briefing to prime minister Nawaz Sharif held in Rawalkot (Pakistan occupied Kashmir), officials of the National Disaster Management Authority said that the death toll stood at 205, with the majority of casualties in Punjab and Kashmir.

The flooding in Punjab had claimed more lives and had also led to thousands of people being stranded in different parts of the province.

Both the Chenab and Jhelum rivers were seen to be in high-flood with the result that hundreds of villages and towns had been cut off from the rest of the country.

Officials said that Jhang and Sialkot had been marooned while there was serious threat to Wazirabad and Gujranwala.