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| October 17, 2005 | Monday | Ramzan 12, 1426 |
Over 5m affected by quake in AJK, NWFP
ISLAMABAD, Oct 16: The 8th October earthquake has affected 5.1 million people living in 665,795 housing units in seven districts of Azad Kashmir and NWFP.
Official data available with Dawn indicates that 3.077 million people living in 427,675 housing units have been affected in the four districts of the NWFP and 2.035 million living in 238,120 housing units in three districts of Azad Kashmir.
According to official figures, over 40,000 people have died and over 60,000 suffered injuries in the catastrophe.
The total loss to the infrastructure has been estimated to the tune of $5 billion.
This shows that over 64 per cent of the total 5.1 million population of these districts has become shelterless setting a gigantic task for the government to rehabilitate such a large number of families.
The data reveals that the worst affected of these seven districts was Mansehra, where the quake hit about 1.323 million people living in the highest number of affected housing units of 172,040.
In Azad Kashmir, the highest number of affected population was in Muzaffarabad district, where 870,516 people were residing in 101,940 houses.
The tehsil-wise breakup of the NWFP shows that 655,375 people living in 82,951 housing units were affected in Mansehra; 242,430 people in 30,357 units in Balakot; 210,560 people in 26,706 units in Oghi; 215,172 people in 32,026 units in Kala Dhaka; 177,355 people in 28,049 units in Batagram; 115,717 people in 18,389 units in Allai; 984,633 people living in 135,575 units in Abbottabad; 1,866,808 people in 27,363 units in Dassu; 104,714 people in 20,350 units in Pattan and 184,319 people in 25,910 units in Palas.
The tehsil-wise breakup in Azad Kashmir indicates that 146,328 people living in 17,244 housing units were affected in Athmuqam; 190,387 people in 23,344 units in Hattian; 533,801 people in 61,352 units in Muzaffarabad; 203,915 people living in 24,267 units in Bagh; 110,737 people in 14,526 units in Dhirkot; 128,869 people in 13,112 Haveli; 50,449 people in 5,526 units in Abbaspur; 161,718 people in 19,329 units in Hajira; 256,443 people in 28,839 units in Rawalakot and 252,623 people in 30,581 units in Palandari.
The quake also affected two other districts of the NWFP but the losses were very minor compared with the above-mentioned 10 districts. The quake hit a population of 5,16,216 in Shangla district living in 53,382 housing units and 1.499 million in Swat district living in 1,42,311 housing units.
Similarly, in Azad Kashmir the killer quake affected 651,581 people living in 75,787 housing units in Kotli district; 377,605 people in 48,213 units in Mirpur district and 349,203 people in 43,237 units in Bhimber district.
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