January 21, 2002	Monday	Ziqa’ad 6, 1422

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SKARDU, Jan 20: Residents of the Kondos valley have voiced concern over the indifferent attitude of the government towards earthquake victims in the area.

Intermittent tremors for the last 20 days had become a continuous threat to the life in the area, Ghulam Ali and Chulam Mehdi, who recently arrived here, told Dawn.

One person was killed and almost 500 standing trees, and several houses fell down. The earthquake has also devastated a vast area of agricultural farms in Tchoghogroung.

“In addition to this, cracks also have appeared in the walls of almost every house in Tchoghogroung and Jaffarabad towns. We have no choice, but to face the disaster” they said.

The inhabitants of the Kondos valley regretted that the government, neither had paid any compensation to the affected people nor done anything to address their problems.

“If the situation persists, locals will face a terrible destruction in future”, the residents said. Eyewitnesses said the mountains of Karmading town, 10km east from Tchoghoroung, had also emitted smoke often at the time of quake.

The sources said they had felt jolts of the earthquake in all parts of Ghanche District. But now only the Kondos valley was facing the tremors.

Locals in the Khour Kondo town are experiencing scorching hot weather owing to this natural disaster.

They urged the authorities to early work out some solution to save the people after carrying out geological survey of the area.