Devastation: People line up at a makeshift crossing after the floodwaters destroyed a bridge and badly damaged nearby roads and buildings in Swat valley
Evacuated: People wade through the chest-high waters in Dera Ismail Khan carrying some of their belongings
Islamist charities with suspected ties to militants are stepping in to provide assistance to the three million people affected by the Pakistan floods.
As the death toll climbs over 1,400, the groups are thought to be exploiting the slow response from the government.
The same groups also played a key role in the relief effort following the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir which killed 75,000 people.
Cut off: Villagers look at the damage caused to a road in Kalam after prolonged heavy rain
Escape: A man braves a makeshift bridge as he attempts to flee to higher ground to escape the flood waters
Devastation: People stand on the remains of a bridge washed away by flood waters in Nowshera
Decimated: An aerial view of flooded areas in Tonsa Sharif after monsoon rains washes away whole villages
Rescue effort: Some of the 30,000 deployed Pakistani soldiers evacuate those stranded on high ground
Devastation: Locals made homeless by the floods salvage their belongings in Nowshera
Trapped: Victims cling to the top of a submerged house in Taunsa Sharif today as the death toll keeps rising
The village of Nowshera was swept away as the worst monsoon rains in living memory devastated the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan
People wait to cross a flooded road in Bannu, northwestern Pakistan
Pakistani flood survivors gather on the higher ground of a railway track in Nowshera
A Pakistani flood survivor carries a mat in a waterlogged area of Nowshera
A child lay crying in a hammock after flood victims shifted to camps to take refuge after their homes were destroyed in Nowshera, located in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province
A child walks around his collapsed house caused by heavy monsoon rains in Misalabad village near in Risalpur
People jostle to get free food distributed by a trader at a camp for flood survivors in Risalpur, Pakistan, yesterday
Representatives from a charity allegedly linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group - which has suspected ties to Al Qaeda and has been blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks - distributed food and offered medical services victims in the town of Charsadda.
The concern is that Pakistani militant groups rail against government ineffectiveness as a way to build support - a message likely to resonate with residents who have criticised the official flood response.
Another, the Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation, which has links to militant groups, announced that it had set up 13 relief and six medical camps, and a dozen ambulances were providing emergency treatment.
Abdul Sami Malik, a spokesman for the UN children’s fund said 1.3 million people were severely affected by the floods in the northwest.
Pakistani authorities are struggling to help victims of the flooding, many of whom have lost their homes and livelihood and say they had not received any official warnings that raging waters were heading their way.
Malik said aid agencies and Pakistani government officials will meet today to determine whether to make an urgent international appeal for help.
Authorities expect the death toll to rise, with forecasts of more of the heavy monsoon rains that have been lashing the area for the past week.
The government has issued new flood warnings and rising waters are threatening to overwhelm the Warsak dam.
The development has prompted disaster officials to ask residents in the northern outskirts of Peshawar city to leave their homes.
‘If needed, forced evacuation will be started,’ said Adnan Khan, a spokesman for the Disaster Management Authority of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province.
As bloated rivers flowed away from the north-west, they began to inundate villages in Punjab province in the east. Villagers in Mianwali, Layyah, Taunsa Sharif and Rajanpur were affected as floodwater began to seep into their homes. Punjab is Pakistan's most populous province and home to many of its biggest farms.
Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority said more than 29,500 houses were damaged and a key trade highway to China was blocked by flooding.
President Asif Ali Zardari's government is already unpopular over widespread allegations of corruption and its failure to tackle politically-explosive issues such as chronic power cuts.
Zaradri is currently in Europe on a state visit.
Waters have receded in some flooded areas. But Malik expressed concern that waters were spreading from the worst hit province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Pakistan's Punjab heartland, the major food-producing province, as well as the Sindh region.
'They are affected. What we have heard from Punjab is that 50,000 people have already been displaced and 200,000 people are being evacuated from Sindh,' he said.
'In case of further rain, they expect that out of 23 districts in Sindh 19 will be affected.'
Officials said it was too early to estimate the damage the floods had caused to the economy, but the rains had so far spared the main agricultural heartland in the Punjab.
'The entire infrastructure we built in the last 50 years has been destroyed,' said Adnan Khan, spokesman for the provincial Disaster Management Authority in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The anger of flood victims poses a danger to the already struggling government. Several hundred protested in the hard-hit district of Nowshera, where survivors had crammed into temporary shelters.
About 250 flood victims blocked a main road in the north-west city of Peshawar last night, complaining they had receiving little or no assistance.
'We need tents. Just look around,' said one, Faisal Islam, sitting on the only dry ground he could find - a highway overpass - surrounded by hundreds more in makeshift shelters constructed from dirty sheets and tarpaulins.
He added: 'This is the only shirt I have. Everything else is buried.'
Waterborne disease, including cholera, could kill thousands more if aid workers cannot deliver enough clean drinking water.
'We have dispatched dozens of mobile medical teams in the affected districts,' said Sohail Altaf, a senior medical official in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa.
Officials have yet to receive concrete reports of cholera cases, but fear of an outbreak is high, he said. Patients with stomach problems from dirty water are being treated in government medical camps, he said.
Hundreds of roads and bridges have been swept away and the Pakistan army, which says it has rescued 28,000 in recent days, predicts search and rescue operations will take at least ten days.
A spokesman for UK-based charity Save The Children said the infrastructure damage in the Swat region may be worse than in the earthquake of 2005 when 75,000 people died.
'We fear that in places which have not yet been accessed there are people that were trapped, and there is a possibility of more deaths taking place,' he said.
Another UK-based charity, ActionAid, launched an emergency appeal to help send food, water and sanitation supplies.
The Queen sent a message of condolence to Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari, Buckingham Palace said.
Her message said: 'I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of those who have been killed, and my deep sympathy to all whose lives have been affected.'
Britain has pledged £5million to help victims of the disaster.
Some 30,000 troops have joined aid workers in a massive rescue operation in the north-west of the country.
The U.S. and the United Nations both pledged £6.5million yesterday.
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