MUZAFFARABAD, Jan 6: The United Nations is probing reports that some quake survivors forced their way onto two aid helicopters then made the crew airlift them from the disaster zone Friday, officials said.
More than 50 survivors were said to have stormed the UN choppers after they landed with relief goods in Banamula, a remote town in the Azad Kashmir, a UN spokesman and a Pakistani official said.
The reported incidents come after freezing weather gripped the area devastated by the Oct 8 earthquake.
“We have had reports of these two incidents of some unauthorised people getting in our helicopters in a place called Banamula,” UN spokesman Ben Malor said.
“These were not people booked on the flight. Apparently they demanded to be taken to Muzaffarabad. We are still trying to get to the bottom of these reports,” he added.
“We are in constant discussions with the Pakistani military at the various locations where the incidents took place and are talking to the authorities on the ground in these places to ascertain the truth about these reports.”
The Pakistani official said the helicopters went to the region at the request of local UN staff to drop off food.
Around 20 people then forced their way into one of the UN helicopters despite being refused permission by the pilots and demanded to be taken to Muzaffarabad, the official told AFP.
When the chopper arrived in the city the quake survivors jumped out and ran off, he said.
Around 30 to 35 unauthorised people then got onto another helicopter and made the same demand, but the pilot diverted to Abbotabad in the NWFP, the official said.
None of the people who stormed the helicopters used weapons during the incidents, the official added.—AFP
