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| October 11, 2005 | Tuesday | Ramazan 6, 1426 |
Pakistan battling huge odds to deliver quake aid MUZAFFARABAD, Azad Kashmir, Oct 11 (AFP) - Pakistan was Tuesday battling huge odds to deliver aid to hungry and traumatised people marooned in the northeastern mountains after the weekend earthquake which killed up to 40,000 people. The authorities estimate over two million people were made homeless by Saturday's 7.6 magnitude quake which obliterated whole towns and villages in Azad Kashmir. Over 60,000 were injured, many seriously. Sporadic looting broke out in the main Kashmiri town of Muzaffarabad as anger over the slow delivery of aid boiled over, but the overwhelmed government insisted it was moving as fast as possible. Military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said late Monday the roads into the two worst-hit towns -- Muzzafarabad and Balakot -- had finally been cleared of landslides and relief trucks could begin arriving in numbers. Survivors were facing an array of problems -- freezing overnight temperatures, rain, landslides, scarce food, little shelter, no communications networks and almost non-existent healthcare. (Posted @ 09:20 PST)
New quake in southwestern Pakistan PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct 11 (AFP) - An earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale jolted southwestern Pakistan late Tuesday, four days after a massive quake devastated northern Pakistan and part of Kashmir, officials said. Tremors were felt in Khuzdar and Sorab districts of Baluchistan province at 8:12 pm (1512 GMT), local seismological department official Salim Akhtar told AFP. "It was a moderate intensity earthquake," he said, adding that the epicentre was 600 kilometers (375 miles) southwest of Peshawar. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to property, he added.(Posted @ 23:40 PST)
24 more US Chinooks to help quake relief: Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Oct 11 (AFP) Pakistan's military on Tuesday said United States was to send 24 more giant Chinook heavy lift helicopters to help the relief efforts. The US military in Afghanistan had already sent five Chinooks and three Black Hawk choppers on Monday and the new helicopters were expected next week, military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said. Two German helicopters and four Afghan helicopters were also due to arrive in Pakistan in coming days, Sultan added. Sultan said 34 Pakistani military helicopters were currently involved in the relief effort.(Posted @ 20:02 PST)
Pakistani grandmother survives three days in quake ruins ISLAMABAD, Oct 11 (Reuters) A 75-year-old grandmother and her daughter were pulled alive from the wreckage of an Islamabad apartment block on Tuesday, more than three days after the massive earthquake. Pakistani rescuers working with a British rescue team cried out "God is Great, God is Great" once it became clear that Maha Bibi and her 55-year-old daughter Khalida Begum were safe. Both women were taken to a nearby hospital, where x-rays confirmed neither had suffered any broken bones, though they had been living on the first floor of a multi-storey block.At least 33 people are confirmed dead, and close to 40 were believed to be still missing, including several foreigners, in the Margalla towers.(Posted @ 19:58 PST)
23,000 dead, 2.5 million homeless: Aziz ISLAMABAD, Oct 11 (APP): Pakistan on Tuesday announced the deployment of two army divisions and additional brigades in the quake affected areas as the official death toll rose to 23,000 with 51,000 injured and another 2.5 million homeless, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said while talking to newsmen. He said that the government had mobilised all resources to meet the catastrophe and given Rs. 500 million each to AJK and NWFP governments to cope with the tragedy. Aziz also said the number of dead was expected to rise from the approximate figure of 23,000. Aziz said all the major road arteries to the affected areas were now been opened while the smaller roads were being cleared of the landslides. "Truck loads full of relief goods, medicines, food and shelter are heading towards the affected areas in AJK and NWFP," he added. He said 15 specialised international rescue teams and 11 foreign medical teams were operating in different affected areas.(Posted @ 19:54 PST)
Azad Kashmir faces disease after quake -officials MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Oct 11 (Reuters) Malaria and other diseases were breaking out in Azad Kashmir where health services were in ruins after an earthquake wrecked hospitals and killed many doctors, a senior health official said on Tuesday. Corpses and sewage had contaminated the river Neelum, the main source of drinking water in Muzaffarabad, officials said. "Health services have totally collapsed here and malaria, gastroenteritis and water borne diseases have already spread in worst-hit areas of the city," a health official said. The United Nations warned of risks of cholera and pneumonia. Apart from destroying all of the more than a dozen government hospitals and almost all private clinics, many medical staff were killed or injured, or were dealing with deaths in their families.(Posted @ 19:50 PST)
More than 15,000 Pakistan Army troops participating in rescue operations in NWFP: ISPR PESHAWAR Oct 11 (APP): Pakistan Army has further expedited rescue operations in the earthquake-hit areas of NWFP and sent more troops and equipments to reinforce teams already operating in the devastating earthquake hit areas, an ISPR release said here Tuesday. More than 15000 troops are now participating in the rescue operation. The army teams continued rescue operations for the fourth consecutive day in Balakot, Battal, Ghari Habibullah, Pattan, Oghi, Mansehra city, Kaghan valley and other areas devastated by the earthquake. Army Aviation helicopters on Tuesday carried out over 50 sorties and evacuated 466 casualties from the earthquake hit areas.(Posted @ 19:38 PST)
Pakistan resumes quake relief flights after rain ISLAMABAD, Oct 11 (AFP) Pakistani authorities resumed helicopter flights to quake-hit areas Tuesday after a two-hour suspension caused by torrential rainstorms, officials at Chaklala airbase said. "Helicopters are in action again to ferry relief goods to affected areas," Pakistan Air Force spokesman Sarfraz Khan announced. The severe rainstorms raised fears that the just opened key roads to the affected region could suffer damage from possible fresh landslides.(Posted @ 18:05 PST)
India willing to give Pakistan any aid it wants: Singh SRINAGAR, Oct 11 (AFP) India has offered to send Pakistan whatever aid it needs for survivors of the weekend's devastating earthquake, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday. "We are willing to supply to Pakistan whatever is on their priority list," Singh said in Srinagar as the first plane loaded with emergency supplies was set to leave New Delhi for Pakistan. Singh said India had offered to help victims in parts of Azad Kashmir cut off from Islamabad by landslides and other damage but reachable from the Indian side. "Our Army chief and the director general of military intelligence have made certain offers, but it all depends upon, I think, Pakistan's sensitivities," the Singh said. "We have to respect their sensitivities. If they agree to this, there will be a positive response from our side," he added.(Posted @ 18:05 PST)
Confirmed Pakistan quake death toll rises to 22,000: interior minister ISLAMABAD, Oct 11 (AFP) The confirmed death toll in Pakistan's devastating earthquake rose to 22,000 on Tuesday, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said. "The death toll has gone up to 22,000 while 50,000 people are injured," Sherpao said.(Posted @ 17:54 PST)
Bagh, a Kashmiri town, waits in despair for government help BAGH, Pakistan, Oct 11 (Reuters) The only aid anyone from Bagh has seen from the government since the earthquake struck had been on television. "We haven't seen a drop of water or medicine coming to us, not even a single grain," a survivor from the town said. With hundreds of corpses of school children, shoppers and office workers lying beneath the rubble, the only proper rescue work being done was by a 60-strong team of Dutch rescue workers. "So far this morning, we've sent sniffer dogs to three buildings and not been able to find a single living person," a team leader of the orange-clad Dutch team said. A Reuters correspondent who travelled overnight from Balakot said the stench of decomposing corpses was even worse in Bagh. The steep, narrow lanes that had been flanked by some 2,000 small shops were obliterated. "We have gone back 100 years. Our businesses are finished and we don't know where to start from," another survivor Razzaq said.(Posted @ 16:28 PST)
Death and desperation in remote Kashmir villages KAMSAR, Pakistan, Oct 11 (Reuters) "There are dead bodies everywhere and those who are injured don't have a drop of water," said Nasar Ahmad, a resident of Kotali village where according to him at least 200 people died after being swept into the Neelum river. "There's no sign of life from here all the way back," said Abdul Majit, referring to his village of Hariala. "There's no food, no electricity, we only have the clothes we're in. No one has reached them," he said. Another witness Mohammad Altaf from Budman village said "we've buried 250 to 300 people and hundreds more are still missing, buried under the rubble." An army camp not far down the Neelum river from Kamsar was virtually flattened and 17 soldiers died there, a policeman Mahmud Bashir said, standing by dozens of freshly dug graves near the camp. (Posted @ 15:10 PST)
Rain hampers rescue efforts in Pakistan quake zone MUZAFFARABAD, Azad Kashmir, Oct 11 (AFP) Torrential rains lashed Muzaffarabad on Tuesday, bringing aid efforts in the devastated Kashmiri city to a temporary standstill, witnesses said. Helicopters that have been making regular flights to bring aid and evacuate the injured from the Pakistani Kashmir capital were halted by the storm, an AFP correspondent said. "It is raining in the whole area from Mansehra to Abbotabad right now," a meteorological office spokesman said. Over the next 24 hours there would likely be isolated and intermittent thunderstorms and rain in Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot, Bagh, Mansehra and other areas. (Posted @ 15:00 PST)
One thousand hospitals in Pakistan destroyed in quake: UN GENEVA, Oct 11 (AFP) - About one thousand hospitals were "completely destroyed" in the earthquake in Pakistan, severely hampering urgent medical treatment for thousands of injured people, Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN's humanitarian coordination office (OCHA), said Tuesday. Pakistan has made an urgent appeal to the international community for field hospitals, as well as antibiotics, anti-typhoid medicines, fracture treatment kits, and surgical equipment, among other supplies, according to OCHA.Islamabad has also called for shelter equipment including tents, plastic sheeting and blankets "for an estimated four million people who are in need of shelter", OCHA's situation report said. Other priority needs include cargo helicopters and food. "Many health workers - including doctors and nurses have died or been seriously injured," the UN's health agency added. Authorities say Saturday's 7.6-magnitude quake, may have killed up to 40,000 people, mainly in Azad Kashmir. (Posted @ 14:30 PST)
Five children pulled alive from rubble in Pakistan's Balakot BALAKOT, Pakistan, Oct 11 (AFP) - Five children have been pulled alive by a French rescue team from the wreckage of a school in quake-hit Balakot, the team leader said Tuesday, wrapping up rescue efforts at the site."Our work rescue work here is finished. The phase of bulldozing and sanitising these areas is going to start," Colonel Jean-Jacques Mornat of the France's Civil Security told AFP. "Since 1:00 pm (0800 GMT) Monday we have brought out five children alive: three little boys at the end of the afternoon, another in the evening and a little girl at 4:00 am this morning," he said. Asked if there was any chance of finding more survivors, Mornat replied: "No, there is no hope." He said that as far as he was aware no other foreign rescue teams had found any other survivors in the last 24 hours in devastated Balakot, the once scenic gateway town to the Kaghan valley tourist area. Residents say hundreds of children were trapped in at least three schools that collapsed when the 7.6 magnitude quake flattened much of the region. (Posted @ 14:30 PST)
India pledges 100 million dollars in Kashmir quake aid URI, occupied Kashmir, Oct 11 (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged five billion rupees (116 million dollars) to help rebuild occupied Kashmir as he toured the earthquake devastated zone Tuesday amid protests by villagers alleging government neglect. Singh announced the package during a stopover in Tandhar before heading south by military helicoper to neighbouring Uri. The premier visited a camp for survivors in Uri but did not see 100 protestors from the nearby villages of Garkote and Nambla who staged a sit-in against the lack of relief supplies. Witnesses said crowds squatted on roads and blocked traffic to demand tents and blankets for their families. (Posted @ 14:05 PST)
Only eight pulled from rubble in quake-hit Muzaffarabad, UN says MUZAFFARABAD, Azad Kashmir, Oct 11 (AFP) - Only eight survivors have so far been pulled out from the heaps of rubble in Muzaffarabad, the UN said Tuesday. The population desperately lacks food and shelter, the distribution of aid is slow, and outlying villages in the area remain accessible, said Alain Pasche, a member of the UN Disaster Assessments and Coordination (UNDAC) team. Rescuers said they had until Friday at the latest to find survivors of Saturday's 7.6-magnitude quake, which authorities say may have killed up to 40,000 people. Beyond Muzaffarabad, the situation remained extremely complicated for aid workers, with roads destroyed or blocked by landslides. "In every village, we have reports of schools collapsing, and a need for dozens of injured to be evacuated, but we can't get to these places without helicopters," Pasche said. Ten foreign search and rescue teams have arrived in Muzaffarabad since Sunday, including three teams from Turkey, three from Britain, one from Russia and another from Germany. As for the distribution of much-needed emergency food aid, no massive relief efforts were seen in the town, apart from the arrival of a few trucks sent by local aid charities and the Pakistani authorities. "There is an immediate need for food, water and shelter for about 116,000 people," said Sahib Haq, an official with the World food Programme (WFP). Food supplies are positioned throughout the country but cannot be delivered due to poor state of roads , he said. "For the moment, only small vehicles can reach Muzaffarabad. And aid can only be delivered in small quantities, or looting will ensue. There are no government vehicles and local administrations are not operational," he said. (Posted @ 14:05 PST)
Japan offers 20 mln dollars, helicopters to Pakistan TOKYO, Oct 11 (AFP) - Japan said Tuesday it would offer 20 million dollars in aid to Pakistan and was ready to dispatch several transport helicopters and dozens of troops to assist with relief efforts in the earthquake disaster zone. "The Self-Defense Force is planning to send around 100 or more troops to Pakistan along with a few transport helicopters". Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said the 20-million-dollar aid offer was decided at Tuesday's cabinet meeting. (Posted @ 09:40 PST)
China's Defence Ministry donates $100,000 for rescue operation in Pakistan BEIJING, Oct. 11 (APP): China's Ministry of Defense has donated US dollar 100,000 in cash in emergency humanitarian aid to Pakistan for the rescue operations and reconstruction efforts in the aftermath of the disaster. This is in addition to $ 6.2 million emergency aid already announced by the Chinese government. China sent its second consignment of relief materials on Monday while China Cross Society announced donation of $100,000. (Posted @ 12:15 PST)
Quake toll in occupied Kashmir rises to 1,244 JAMMU, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Saturday’s deadly earthquake has killed over 1,200 people in occupied . "The latest information I have is 1,194 civilians have been killed and over 5,796 people are injured," Javed Makdhoomi, state’s inspector-general of police said Tuesday. Fifty soldiers posted along the LoC also died, an army spokesman added. The fate of about 10,000 people living in remote border areas is still not known, officials say. (Posted @ 12:10 PST)
Pakistan aid effort needs 50 more helicopters -U.N. ISLAMABAD, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Three days after a catastrophic earthquake devasted northern Pakistan, relief efforts remained chaotic due to blocked roads and lack ofaircraft and dozens more helicopters were desperately needed, a senior U.N. official said. More than 20 helicopters essential to reach remote areas worst affected had been pledged from abroad, but we still don't have enough," he said. "We need maybe 40 or 50 more helicopters beyond what we have been promised already." (Posted @ 11:50 PST)
Canada ups Pakistan aid to 17 million dollars OTTAWA, Oct 10 (AFP) - Canada has earmarked an additional 20 million Canadian dollars (17 million US) for Pakistan earthquake victims in response to requests for more aid, the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement Monday. The donation will also send 15,000 blankets by Canadian Forces Hercules Airplanes. (Posted @ 11:35 PST)
Risk of epidemic in quake-hit Muzaffarabad: MSF ISLAMABAD, Oct 11 (AFP) - Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned Tuesday there was a risk of an epidemic of water-borne disease in Muzaffarabad, the quake-devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir. The Paris-based aid group's chief in Islamabad, Isabelle Simpson, said water supplies could become contaminated because of quake damage, "which is why we worry that that could lead then to outbreaks of other water-borne diseases". "Especially as very few people have shelter up there, they're crowding into homes and camp-type situations, so there's a lot of potential for health risks," she said. (Posted @ 11:35 PST)
Pakistani-Americans doctors feel pulse of quake trauma WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (AFP) - The 10,000-member Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America is immediately despatching a team of medical specialists for the relief of quake victims in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir. The association has also started a fund collection drive to meet the immediate needs of the victims: tents, blankets and food. At a sprawling warehouse of Hidaya Foundation, a California-based Muslim charity group, sweaters, winter coats, shoes, toys, wheelchairs, cooking supplies and other essentials have been stacked up, ready to be shipped to the earthquake-hit areas. "At least five containers have left for Pakistan and one more would be shipped by next week," said Osman Ergene, spokesman for the foundation, which has also donated 500,000 dollars to its sister organization in Pakistan. The Islamic Community Center of Baltimore in Maryland state said it would postpone fundraising for the center's American Museum for Islamic Arts, enabling donors to direct their giving toward earthquake relief. Mosques are acting as "action centers" in drawing donations from Muslims flocking daily for prayers, while other charities have also become active. (Posted @ 11:35 PST)
Australia boosts quake aid after criticism SYDNEY, Oct 11 (AFP) - The Australian government on Tuesday almost doubled its pledge of aid for victims of the South Asian earthquake after opposition parties criticised it as miserly. Canberra announced that it would provide an extra 4.5 million dollars (3.42 million US dollars), bringing its total commitment to 10 million dollars. (Posted @ 11:05 PST)
Elation as Iraqi woman and toddler freed after 60 hours ISLAMABAD, Oct 11 (AFP) - After 60 hours buried in the twisted wreckage of an 10-storey apartment complex, an Iraqi woman and her two-year-old son were pulled out alive late Monday night. The woman's faint cries lead rescuers to an air pocket where she was found cradling her son in the wreckage. Emotions ran high as Pakistani soldiers and a British rescue team using sniffer dogs finally dug the pair out. “It's miraculous," junior interior minister Shehzad Waseem exclaimed. The boy had no physical injuries. It was bittersweet for the mother, 32, who was being operated upon for a broken leg and was distraught after hearing that her husband had died. Another 40 to 50 people were still trapped , Waseem and police officials said. Five people have now been brought out alive from the destroyed building, and 30 people are confirmed dead. (Posted @ 10:20 PST)
Important Emergency Numbers in Pakistan
Prime Minister House Earthquake Relief Cell: 051-9213891, 051-9222666.
President's Relief Fund for Earthquake Victims-2005: 051-9208100, 051-9202528, Fax: 051-9207635
Disaster Relief Cell, PM Secretariat: 051-920-6111
Crisis Managment Cell, Commander 111 Brigade, Rawalpindi: 051-926-7596
Foreign Office Emergency Coordination Centre Phone: 051-920-7663, Fax: 051-922-4205, 051-922-4206
President's Relief Fund for Earthquake Victims-2005: 051-9208100, 051-9202528, Fax: 051-9207635
Disaster Relief Cell, PM Secretariat: 051-920-6111
Crisis Managment Cell, Commander 111 Brigade, Rawalpindi: 051-926-7596
Foreign Office Emergency Coordination Centre Phone: 051-920-7663, Fax: 051-922-4205, 051-922-4206
Founder: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
Editor: Tahir Mirza
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