Pakistan govt orders mass evacuation ahead of cyclone landfall

Karachi: The Pakistan authorities on Monday started evacuation efforts to move 80,000 citizens from the low-lying coastal areas in the southern Sindh province as the fast-approaching severe Cyclone Biparjoy is likely to hit the coastline later this week, media reported.

The cyclone is making its way across the Arabian Sea towards the coastlines of Pakistan and India, forecast to make landfall later this week, Dawn reported.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said an emergency had been declared and the Army drafted in to help relocate “more than 80,000 people” at risk.

“We will not request people but demand them to evacuate,” he told reporters, adding that the order was being issued through social media, mosques and radio stations, Dawn reported.

A spokesperson for Shah said that around 2,000 people had already been evacuated to “safe places” from the area of Shah Bandar, a fishing town nestled among mangrove deltas 45 km (28 miles) west of India’s Gujarat state.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department has warned that traditional mud and straw homes which house the poorest in Pakistan will be vulnerable to disintegration in high winds, Dawn reported.

Karachi — a port city home to around 20 million — is also due to be deluged by dust and thunder storms with winds whipping up to 80 kilometre per hour.

Billboards will be removed and 70 vulnerable buildings evacuated in the city, while construction will be stopped over the entire affected area, media reported.

Heavy rains and strong winds late Saturday killed 27 people in northwest Pakistan, including eight children, officials said.

“Undoubtedly, these are the adverse effects of climate change,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Twitter on Sunday.

Last summer, Pakistan was hit by massive monsoon rains which put a third of the country under water, damaged two million homes and killed more than 1,700 people.