The crisis comes as the government is struggling to fight an Islamic insurgency and to cope with the aftermath of Wednesday’s plane crash in which 152 people died in the fog- and rain-shrouded Himalayan foothills just outside this capital city. It was the deadliest domestic plane crash in Pakistan’s history.

Officials said the deluge was the worst since 1929 in northwest Pakistan, where water levels in dams continued to rise. And with more rain forecast for all but that part of the country, increasing the likelihood of more flash floods and landslides, government officials issued pleas for international aid.

“We are carrying out this rescue despite limited resources,” Lutfur Rehman, a government official in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, formerly the North-West Frontier Province, told The Associated Press. The area, already ravaged by terrorism that has led to a decline in the economy, needed more helicopters and boats to aid in rescues, he said.

Also hit hard was the Swat Valley, where the government has been working on reconstruction after last year’s military operation there to remove the militants; of the 65 bridges washed away by the rains, 25 were in Swat.

The sheer scale of the floods and the government’s inability to provide immediate relief has led to widespread resentment and bitterness among those affected. Displaced people have contacted local reporters and accused government officials of apathy and incompetence.

“Someone lost his brother, someone lost his sister,” a man from Nowshera, one of the hardest-hit districts, told a local news station. “There is nothing to eat. There is no drinking water. We need food. We need tents. Where is the government?” Read more : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/world/asia/01pstan.html?ref=global-home