Flooding kills at least 34 in Pakistan, India

Intense rains have left at least 34 people dead after lashing parts of Pakistan and India and triggering flash floods and landslides in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Wednesday.

- By Munir AHMED AND SHEIKH SAALIQ

RESIDENTS view the remains of their houses, damaged by flash floods along the banks of the Tawi river in Jammu, India, on Wednesday.

More than 200,000 people in Pakistan have been displaced, and the shrine of the founder of the Sikh religion has been submerged.

Forecasters say rain will continue across the region this week. Heavy downpours and flash floods in the Himalayan region have killed nearly 100 people in August.

Part of a mountainside in Indian-controlled Kashmir’s Jammu region collapsed onto a popular Hindu pilgrimage route following heavy rains in the Katra area late Tuesday. Devotees had been trekking to reach the hilltop temple, which is one of the most-visited shrines in northern India, officials said.

The bodies of most of the pilgrimage victims were recovered from under the debris, according to disaster management official Mohammed Irshad, who said at least 18 other people were injured and taken to hospitals.