CNN\/Salman Saeed<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As we waded past their homes, some people shouted, \u201cWe hate India\u201d and \u201cThis is Indian water.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThey opened the gate, but no information was given,\u201d said Shoriful Islam, 29, an IT worker who returned to his hometown from the capital Dhaka to volunteer in rescue efforts. <\/p>\n
India denied the dam release was deliberate and said excessive rain was a factor \u2013 although it conceded that a power outage and communications breakdown meant they failed to issue the usual warning to neighbors downstream. <\/p>\n
\u201cIndia used a water weapon,\u201d Islam said. \u201cIndia is taking revenge for destroying the last government.\u201d <\/p>\n
The only way in or out of the flood zone is by boat \u2013 all the main roads are completely cut off to vehicles, and rescue efforts are being slowed by the lack of electricity and near-total communications blackout in the city. <\/p>\n
The army and navy have been mobilized to coordinate relief operations \u2013 and a nationwide volunteering effort has sprung up in the past few days, with people arriving from Dhaka and other parts of the country to lend a hand with rescues and delivering aid. <\/p>\n
Some of them are also returning to their hometown to search for their family members. <\/p>\n
Volunteer Abdus Salam, 35 \u2013 who usually works as an English teacher in Dhaka \u2013 said 12 members of his family are stranded in a rural area 15 miles (25 kilometers) from the center of Feni, including his two sisters, brother, and their children. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no electricity, no gas, no internet,\u201d he added, calling for the international community to send assistance. <\/p>\n
Nearly 5 million people are impacted by the floods in Bangladesh, and at least 18 people have been killed \u2013 but there are fears that number could rise much higher as the flood waters recede. <\/p>\n
In neighboring India, officials say at least 26 people have been killed, and more than 64,000 people are seeking shelter in relief camps in the Tripura region. <\/p>\n
Anger is now rising among the flood victims in Bangladesh about the source of the water that flooded their homes. <\/p>\n
Pranay Verma, India\u2019s high commissioner to Bangladesh, told Bangladesh\u2019s interim government an \u201cautomatic release\u201d occurred at the dam due to high water levels, according to the interim government\u2019s press secretary, Shafiqul Alam. <\/p>\n
But some believe politics played a part. <\/p>\n
\u201cIndia displayed inhumanity by opening the dam without warning,\u201d said Nahid Islam, one of the two student representatives in Bangladesh\u2019s interim government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Hasina fled by helicopter to India on August 5, after tens of thousands of people marched on the capital and her residence. During her 15 years in power, Hasina formed strong ties with India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is now serving a rare third term. <\/p>\n
After her ouster, reports emerged of reprisal attacks against people viewed as loyal to Hasina\u2019s party \u2013 many of them Hindus \u2013 which sparked major concern in neighboring Hindu-majority India. <\/p>\n
India\u2019s Ministry of External Affairs said in statement Thursday that it was \u201cfactually not correct\u201d to blame the flooding on water released from Dumbur dam. <\/p>\n
It said flooding in Bangladesh was \u201cprimarily\u201d due to water flowing from large catchment areas on the Gumti River, downstream from the dam. <\/p>\n
\u201cFloods 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,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n
As the diplomatic row builds, rescue teams are working around the clock in the flood zone \u2013 where every rescue operation is a huge logistical challenge. <\/p>\n
What would usually be a four-hour drive from Dhaka is double that on the gridlocked roads as rescue workers and volunteers try to access the flood region from all over the country. Boats are hard to come by \u2013 so many families arrive to retrieve their relatives but then have no way to reach them. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m helpless because I don\u2019t have a boat,\u201d said Yasin Arafat, 24, who came from Dhaka to try to reach his father, mother, grandmother and younger brother. <\/p>\n
He has heard there are 35 families clinging to a rooftop in his village, including two pregnant women. But it\u2019s a three-hour boat ride from the city and he can\u2019t find a rescue boat to take him there. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey have no water, no food, and they\u2019re very scared,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the last 48 hours, I haven\u2019t had any news.\u201d <\/p>\n
Even when people can source a boat, there are sections of the city on higher ground \u2013 including the railway track \u2013 where the vessels need to carried manually by dozens of volunteers. <\/p>\n
The main highway through Feni has now turned into its main waterway \u2013 and is being used as the central route for people to make it to dry land. <\/p>\n
Some of the people able to walk out are wading through waist- or chest-high muddy water \u2013 risking water-borne diseases, snakes or drowning to try to reach safety. <\/p>\n
For many others in the deepest parts of the flood, it\u2019s impossible to try walking \u2013 so they are stranded in villages several kilometers from the city center. Even the boat journey to these areas is risky \u2013 navigating through dense trees and marshes risks clogging the engine or hitting underwater obstacles invisible in the murky water. <\/p>\n
Our boat passes by a government building being used as a rescue center, where an estimated 500 people are sheltering. <\/p>\n
Other multi-story buildings \u2013 including a flooded hospital and several schools \u2013 are being used as a temporary home for those living in single-story shacks that are now underwater. They are physically safe but lacking food, water and medicine. <\/p>\n
Peyara Akther, 36, is trying to rescue her sister Tanzina and her sick newborn baby from the rural outskirts of the city. She said the 1-month-old hasn\u2019t been eating for the past few days and needs to get to a doctor. <\/p>\n
But after searching for an hour to make it to the school where she believes her sister might be sheltering, there\u2019s no sign of them \u2013 the communications blackout compounding the mounting problems facing these rescue operations. <\/p>\n
Akther makes her way home, in the hope her sister has found another way there. <\/p>\n
We head further north with a different boat to witness the next rescue operation. <\/p>\n