Pakistan authorities blew up an embankment next to a monsoon-engorged dam as flooding submerged one of the world's holiest Sikh sites.

Three trans-boundary rivers in the east of the country have swollen to exceptionally high levels as a result of heavy rains across the border in India.

The development seems to have has triggered flood alerts throughout Punjab province, which is home to nearly half of Pakistan's 255 million people, just as the army was also deployed to help evacuate people and livestock near the Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej rivers.

According to the disaster authorities, around 210,000 people had moved to another location, meanwhile, at the Qadirabad dam on the Chenab River, authorities carried out a controlled explosion of an embankment as the water levels rose.

A spokesperson for Punjab's disaster management agency, Mazhar Hussain, said to save the structure, his men have breached the right marginal embankment so that the flow of the water would reduce.

The Kartarpur temple, which marks where the founder of the Sikh faith Guru Nanak is said to have died in 1539, was also submerged by floodwater, while five boats were sent to the sprawling site to rescue around 100 stranded people.

Meanwhile, Pakistan authorities said neighboring India had released water from upstream dams on its side of the border, further increasing the flow headed towards Pakistan.

Recall that Pakistan has been battered by a brutal monsoon season this year, with landslides and floods triggered by torrential rain killing more than 800 people since June.