By IRNA,
New Delhi : India’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh Thursday called the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani to express his sense of sorrow and to condole the deaths resulting from the huge floods that have devastated parts of Pakistan.
Prime Minister said that the Government of India had already made an offer of assistance and was ready to do more to assist in the relief effort.
Singh said that in such times of natural disasters, all of South Asia should rise to the occasion and extend every possible help to the people of Pakistan affected by the tragedy.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna had conveyed India’s offer to his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi during a telephone conversation last Friday.
Krishna described the offer of aid as a “gesture of solidarity with the people of Pakistan in their hour of need”.
Flood in Pakistan began in July 2010 after heavy monsoon rains affected the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab as well as parts of Baluchistan.
At least 2,000 people have been killed and more than 722,000 homes have been badly damaged or totally destroyed.
The United Nations estimates over 20 million people are displaced. Over 160,000 square kilometers — One Fifth of Pakistan — was affected by the flood disaster.