ISLAMABAD, June 8: The International Committee of Red Crescent (ICRC) and the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) have launched a joint public campaign to elucidate the fate of 221 persons including 85 children still unaccounted for since the October earthquake.

According to an ICRC official, nearly 400 families approached the ICRC and the PRCS about missing relatives after the earthquake. So far, 172 cases have been resolved and 79 people have been confirmed alive.

The campaign is a new attempt to get the word about the ICRC/PRCS family tracing service out to areas where survivors might have relocated.

In an effort to help restore family links, the ICRC in cooperation with the tracing services of the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies had offered this service to all those seeking information about relatives who may have been affected by the earthquake.

A book and posters with the names and wherever possible photos of those missing will be made available in schools, hospitals, PRCS and ICRC offices and other public places. In addition, TV spots will be used to raise public awareness of the issue.

“Only 10 days ago, a 16-year-old girl from Balakot was reunited with her family,” said Ahmad Nawaz Khan, an ICRC tracing officer. She was away from home when the earthquake struck and wrongly assumed that her entire family had died. She was finally found in a school in Karachi where she had been brought by a family with whom she had taken refuge.

Meanwhile, the PRCS has started reconstruction activities in the earthquake affected areas of Azad Kashmir.