Millions in this country are stranded by flooding. Many blame their neighbor

Feni, Bangladesh CNN . . Wading through muddy floodwaters up to chest height, hundreds of people slowly make their way to safety, their belongings held high above their heads to keep them dry.. . Entering the city of Feni in southeast Bangladesh, it becomes clear why it is described as the epicenter of one of the countrys worst floods in living memory..

Since Wednesday night, water has inundated 11 districts, and large swathes of the city of nearly 1.5 million people are now submerged.. . Bangladesh lives on its rivers and waterways its people relying on the vital life source for fishing and farming rice paddies..

But some believe politics played a part.. . India displayed inhumanity by opening the dam without warning, said Nahid Islam, one of the two student representatives in Bangladeshs interim government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus.. . . Three weeks ago, Bangladesh ejected its long-standing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after a student-led protest movement against job quotas morphed into a nationwide movement to force her out of power when she ordered a bloody crackdown, killing hundreds of people.. . Hasina fled by helicopter to India on August 5, after tens of thousands of people marched on the capital and her residence..

After her ouster, reports emerged of reprisal attacks against people viewed as loyal to Hasinas party many of them Hindus which sparked major concern in neighboring Hindu-majority India.. . Indias Ministry of External Affairs said in statement Thursday that it was factually not correct to blame the flooding on water released from Dumbur dam.. ..

It said flooding in Bangladesh was primarily due to water flowing fromlarge catchment areas on the Gumti River, downstream from the dam.. . Floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting sufferings to people on both sides, and requires close mutual cooperation towards resolving them, the statement said...

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