Aid battle for flood-hit Pakistan

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Rescuers in Pakistan are struggling to bring aid to more than a million people hit by storms that have also struck many other areas in south Asia.

Army helicopters and transport planes are dropping aid to the homeless in Pakistan's Balochistan province.

Officials say fewer than 20 people died when Cyclone Yemyin struck on Tuesday but poor communications and remoteness mean an accurate figure is unavailable.

A key Hindu pilgrimage in Kashmir has been suspended due to heavy rain.

More that 140 people have been killed in storms and floods over the past week in India.

In flooded parts of Afghanistan, more than 80 people have died in recent days.

Riot police

Relief officials in Balochistan said the situation was being brought under control after police on Friday fired tear gas on hundreds of angry protesters demanding help in the city of Turbat.

Every family is looking for one or two members. They are all missing Chaker Baloth,Balochistan resident <a class="" href="/1/hi/world/south_asia/6255920.stm">Anger and despair</a> <a class="" href="/1/hi/in_pictures/6253114.stm">In pictures: Flood devastation</a> <a class="" href="/1/hi/world/south_asia/6240740.stm">Your stories from Karachi</a>

Khudah Bakhsh, relief commissioner for Balochistan, said: "Pakistan's army is using transport planes and helicopters to ferry aid."

Hundreds of thousands of homes are without electricity or drinking water.

The BBC's Ilyas Khan in Turbat district says much of the area is completely devastated, with trees uprooted, electricity wires down and roads destroyed.

He says that only buildings made of cement blocks have survived, but most people living in mud-brick houses have seen their homes destroyed.

A large crowd of homeless people stormed the district offices in the centre of Turbat city on Friday.

Police fired tear gas to disperse them. A deputy police chief and three of the protesters were injured.

Heavy flooding has struck the Indian city of Mumbai

Mr Bakhsh put the Balochistan death toll at 17 but local media were reporting as many as 200 had died.

Chaker Baloth, a Balochistan resident who arrived in Turbat from an outlying area, told the Associated Press news agency: "Every family is looking for one or two members. They are all missing."

Officials further north in the Khyber agency bordering Afghanistan said nearly 70 people had been killed there.

Last weekend more than 200 people were killed in Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, by floods and high winds.

Coastal evacuation

Heavy rain has forced the suspension of the important Hindu pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine in Indian-administered Kashmir.

The decision means that thousands of pilgrims who make the annual trek along a treacherous mountain track to the shrine in the Himalayas have been left stranded in Kashmir.

Heavy flooding has hit the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) with train services suspended and people urged to stay at home.

A storm off the coast of India's southern Andhra Pradesh state has forced the evacuation of 50,000 people from low-lying areas.