BATTAGRAM, Oct 21: A military relief centre in Battagram has received 400 tents and relief goods from the Saudi Relief Committee for Afghanistan for distribution in Alai where, according to official and independent sources, a number of villages were flattened by the October 8 earthquake.

The 400 tents, said an official, would help meet the urgent need of providing shelter to survivors.

As road links with the far-off Alai subdivision remained cut off, Pakistan army helicopters are being used to airlift the injured and other survivors from the region where thousands of people are believed to have perished.

“Rashung village, about 65 kilometres from Battagram town, has vanished,” said its elderly resident Radar Khan. He was brought in a military helicopter from Rashung to Battagram on Thursday.

Mr Khan lost two daughters when his house collapsed. He is here with another daughter and wife who is a heart patient. About 40 people were killed in the neighbourhood of Rashung village, said Mr Khan.

“Only in the union council of Rashung some 700 people died, and the number of casualties in Gungwal area is higher than in any other place in Battagram district,” said Shafiq-ur-Rehman, an employee of the National Commission for Human Development which is extending humanitarian assistance to affected people.

Mr Rehman, who belongs to the Alai subdivision, would work for distribution of the 400 tents.

Abdullah Khan, the Peshawar-based director public relations of the Saudi relief committee, handed over trucks carrying the tents and floor mats to the military authorities at Battagram. According to him, the tents were originally meant for Afghanistan.

“In view of the pressing need in the quake-affected areas here, we shifted our stock from Jalalabad to Battagram for distribution among the affected people of Alai,” said Mr Khan.

“The donor wants the relief items distributed in Alai and, therefore, we are making arrangements to airlift the consignment to the area during the next couple of days,” said Maj. Buhram of the Pakistan army, second-in-command at the army relief centre.

With the road from Battagram to Alai already blocked by landslides, the military authorities engaged in relief work experienced further difficulties when the Battagram-Thakot road was blocked again by a landslide triggered by this week’s aftershocks.

Vehicular traffic could not move beyond the point where the landslide blocked the Karakoram Highway between Battagram and Thakot. Long lines of vehicles were seen stranded on the highway.

“I am stuck here for five hours because of the landslide,” said the driver of a truck loaded with relief goods. Army personnel were busy clearing the way.