Pakistan's eastern towns of Chiniot and Hafizabad face a risk of catastrophic floods if an irrigation barrage crumbles on a major river upstream after heavy rains swelled it beyond capacity, officials warned on Thursday.

The evacuations came a day after New Delhi alerted Islamabad about possible cross-border flooding, marking the first public diplomatic contact between the two nuclear-armed rivals in months.

Pakistan authorities blew up an embankment next to a monsoon-engorged dam on Wednesday as flooding submerged one of the world's holiest Sikh sites. Authorities carried out a controlled explosion of an embankment at Qadirabad dam on the Chenab River on Wednesday as the water levels rose.

At least three transboundary rivers in the east of the country have swollen to exceptionally high levels as a result of heavy rains across the border in India.

Pakistan has issued a flood alert for some southern districts, warning of torrential rains, as rescue teams continued searching for missing people in the northwest, where severe floods have killed hun

Heavy rain swept across the Himalayas, killing at least 36 people in India over the past 24 hours and forcing authorities to open major dams, in turn triggering flood alerts on three rivers in neighbouring Pakistan.

Pakistan is in the midst of a solar boom that has rapidly turned the country into one of the world's largest new adopters of this renewable energy source, according to data from the global energy think tank Ember. This solar transition is driven by demand from frustrated Pakistani citizens who have seen electricity prices skyrocket in recent years.

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