GILGIT, March 29: At least 1,200 people have been affected by mild tremors in a remote and hilly village of Attabad in central Hunza which rock it periodically.

The jolts have also damaged 25 houses and caused deep soil erosion. Cracks are all over the place. But no human casualty has been reported, except that two persons had been hospitalized due to shock and awe.

This was observed from close quarters during a visit by a joint team of journalists and aid-workers on Saturday.

Attabad is situated 11,000 feet above the sea level and has been experiencing dormant shocks since November 2002. “But we were unaware of the situation until it became alarming,” the locals said.

They said initially they thought the mild jolts and aftershocks might have been a result of the routine landslides and avalanches.

But they learnt about the actual situation as their lands developed multiple cracks and deep erosions.

The recent jolts made 25 families extremely vulnerable besides eroding 1,300 kanals of farmland, affecting over 1,500 cattle and damaging thousands of fruit and poplar trees, according to estimates of the local settlement department.

The affected families had with them limited ration as they had not received any aid from any agency to cope with the situation.

“We are running out of food, medicine and fuel as we could not make our voice heard in the right quarters, Sultan Ishaque, a spokesman for the affected people told newsmen.

He said: “We have been experiencing the aftershocks and underground jolts since the quakes hit Astore and Raikot valleys in Diamer district in November, 2002.”

When snow melted down in the village, the people noticed wide cracks in their agriculture steppes, he said.

The situation has become alarming over the last 10 days as cracks began multiplying, Ishaque said.

He said their lands were incapable of growing any crop, fodder or vegetables — the major sources of their livelihood — in their hilly ghetto.

A large number of women and children told newsmen that they had not been able to sleep properly for the past two weeks for fear of quakes.

“We had lost sleep, were suffering from anxiety, irritation, and mental stress as the new situation had badly scared us,” they said in a chorus.

Some parents said they were concerned about the safety of their kids because of the prevailing uncertain situation. Their children were supposed to walk 4kms daily down the steep pavements to get to their school.

The quakes have affected 1,200 people in Attabad and their removal to safer areas is a daunting task. The rehabilitation of thousands of the quake-refugees of Astore and Raikot is already an unresolved affair, a local aid worker said.

“We have not a single first-aid centre nor a proper road to shift patients to other areas,” a widow told Dawn.

The recent aftershocks have caused a 3,500 feet long and 45 feet deep crevasse that runs through Attabad and goes out to upper Hunza, which has put protruding rocks and boulders in a stumbling position over the village.

The locals said that these shaky rocks and boulders would cause heavy landfalls even when a slight jolt hits the area. The locals feared there was an impending threat for the Karakoram Highway and a large chunk of the upper Hunza would be inundated if the landfalls blocked the flow of Hunza River. They said they had received no relief so far except 12 tents donated by a local NGO. They demanded of the government to send immediate relief supplies, teams of experts and doctors to control the situation.