Over 2,000 Sikhs, Hindus displaced by Pakistan floods

Source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Tuesday, Augest 31, 2010

LAHORE : Over 2,000 Sikhs and Hindus have been displaced by the unprecedented floods sweeping Pakistan, says the Evacuee Trust Property Board, a body that looks after the interests of the country's minority communities.

Twenty million people, a majority of them from the northwest, have been affected by the floods.

Over 1,700 people have died and crops worth over a billion dollars were destroyed.

ETPB Deputy Director (shrines) Fraz Abbas told PTI that an estimated 2,000 Sikhs and Hindus had been displaced by the deluge.

"Most of them belong to Sindh and Kyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces," he said.

About 150 displaced Sikhs and Hindus have taken shelter at Gurdwara Dera Sahib in Lahore and Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hasanabdal while 100 more are sheltering at Gurdwara Janamasthan in Nankana Sahib.

Abbas said the ETPB had asked provincial authorities to ensure the safe evacuation of minorities and their travel to major gurdwaras where the board has made arrangements for their stay.

"We are providing shelter, food and medical treatment to displaced Sikhs and Hindus and will continue to look them after till they can return to their homes," ETPB Chairman Asif Hashmi said.

"The board will not ask the flood-affected people to leave the gurdwaras till their houses are reconstructed," Hashmi said.