Islamabad/Lahore, Sept 8
Over 200 people were killed and nearly 400 injured in floods and rain-related incidents in Pakistan, mainly in Punjab province, with four days of torrential downpour leaving a trail of death and devastation.

The showers which started last week continued through the weekend in Punjab and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), leading to floods in Chenab river inundating Gujrat, Gujranwala and Sialkot districts.

Hundreds of villages in Punjab were submerged while thousands of people were marooned in Gujranwala and Sialkot regions. Standing crop over hundreds and thousands of acres was destroyed while a large number of livestock were washed away.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), 130 people have died in Punjab, 64 in PoK and 10 in northren areas.

Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains affected large swathes of fertile land in Pakistan's largest province of Punjab, as authorities were struggling to contain the losses and rescue stranded people.

The Khanki, Marala and Qadirabad barrages were inundated by floods in the Chenab and risk being breached. The floods were also threatening the city of Hafizabad.

According to the Flood Forecasting Bureau, a peak of 675,000 cusecs would cross at Trimmu between September 9 and 10 warning of a disaster in areas around river Chenab because the design capacity of the barrage there is 600,000 cusecs.

The deluge has so far affected 556 villages, mostly in Gujranwala and Sialkot, where thousands of people were trapped and houses submerged with livestock washed away, the NDMA said.

Sialkot, Wazirabad, Hafizabad, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Chiniot, Jalalpur Jattan, Phalia, Jhang and Pindi Bhattian were directly hit by the flood which also damaged a number of roads, bridges and important installations.

The NDMA warned of flooding in river Indus between September 13 and 14 at Guddu town in Sindh and at Sukkur on September 15. Punjab's five rivers wash into the Indus at Panjnad before it enters the Sindh province. TV footage showed people standing on rooftops of their submerged houses while cattle was being swept away by powerful currents.

The floods destroyed crops on more than 28,000 acres of land in Punjab. — PTI

Islamabad, September 8
Sikhs in Pakistan have held a protest march and threatened to launch a countrywide agitation if the government fails to provide security to them following targeted killings of members of the minority community in recent weeks.

The protest march was held on Sunday in the northwest Mardan city against the killings of several businessmen in the militancy-plagued Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The protest was organised by All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement whose chairman Haroon Sarb Diyal expressed concern over the targeted killings of members of Sikh community, Dawn reported.

Janmohan Singh, leader of the local Sikhs, lamented that one of their relatives identified as Amarjeet Singh was killed by unknown assailants inside his shop at Shaheedan Bazaar last Wednesday.

He termed the case an incident of targeted killing, which had spread panic among Sikhs and other minority communities.

“This was the sixth or seventh killing of our community member in targeted attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the government has failed to arrest the killers and take effective steps,” he said. Another Sikh trader identified as Har Jeet Singh was shot dead last Saturday in Peshawar. Diyal said that they were not satisfied with steps being taken by the government for their protection. — PTI

Raising voice against ‘targeted’ killings They held a protest march on Sunday in the northwest Mardan city against the killings of several businessmen in the militancy-plagued Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement chairman Haroon Sarb Diyal said he was not satisfied with steps being taken by the government for Sikhs' protection

Mariupol, September 8
Ukraine accused pro-Russian rebels of waging fresh attacks in the restive east today, further imperilling a fragile truce as EU leaders prepared to approve punishing new sanctions on Moscow.

Russia warned it would retaliate against the new measures, which the EU has nevertheless said could be suspended if Moscow observes the ceasefire deal and removes its troops from Ukraine.

The warring parties have each accused the other of breaching the pact since it was signed Friday, the first backed by both Kiev and Moscow to end a conflict that has plunged East-West relations to a post-Cold War low.

Ukrainian soldiers were strengthening their positions around the flashpoint port city of Mariupol after weekend shelling by the insurgents left one woman dead.

"Despite the ceasefire, Ukrainian positions are still coming under attack," said Ukrainian defence spokesman Andriy, also accusing Russian troops of stirring trouble.

Ukrainian forces said separatist militias had violated the truce overnight in Mariupol, which remains in government hands despite a rebel advance, and in the eastern insurgent strongholds of Lugansk and Donetsk.

The first attacks outside Mariupol late Saturday erupted only hours after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian leader Vladimir Putin issued nearly identical statements agreeing the truce was "generally holding" and vowing to pursue further steps toward peace.

Western governments accused Moscow of sending in huge numbers of troops and heavy weapons to back insurgents who launched a counter-offensive across the southeast in late August in a devastating reversal of fortune for the Ukrainian military. — Reuters

London, September 8
United States President Barack Obama is set to reveal America's "game plan" for combating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in a speech on Wednesday, a report said.

The US President said that Washington would degrade the ISIS, shrink their territory and "defeat them," reported the BBC. However, he also added that the offensive is not going to be the equivalent of the Iraq war but will be a counter-terrorism campaign that the US has been conducting for the past seven years.

Obama has been criticized in the past for failing to devise a plan to counter the ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Meanwhile, the Arab League has also vowed to take all necessary steps against the militant group which has seized large swathes of territory in the two Gulf States.

The jihadist militants who have seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria are intent upon creating "a house of blood", the UN's new human rights chief said today.

In his maiden address to the UN Human Rights Council, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein lashed out at the Islamic State militant group, which has carved out a stronghold and declared a "caliphate" in an area straddling the border of the two conflict-torn nations. — Agencies