October 08, 2006	Sunday	Ramazan 14, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: The armed forces swung into action and took part in the country’s biggest-ever peacetime relief and rescue operation after the devastating earthquake rattled parts of Pakistan last year, a top military official said.

“The daring armed forces personnel risked their own lives to save the quake-hit people and we are proud of the role played by them,” Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, director-general of Inter-Services Public Relations, said in an interview with Dawn on the eve of the first anniversary of the disaster.

He said dozens of helicopters and thousands of army troops participated in operations to rescue the injured and transport relief material to the survivors

The ISPR director-general dismissed as untrue reports about a ‘delayed response’ by the army.

“It takes some time to mobilise resources to respond to natural calamities of such magnitude,” he pointed out. But, he said, army aviation’s helicopters, engineers and medical teams moved in soon after the disaster. He said the earthquake jolted parts of Pakistan at 8.51am and the army brought the first injured man, Fayyaz Abbasi, 20, from Bagh at 11.30am, pointing out that the flight time from Bagh to Rawalpindi was 45 minutes.

He said the army evacuated the injured from affected areas in record time. Civilians were the first to be evacuated and an impression created by certain elements that army personnel were evacuated on a priority basis was absolutely baseless, he said.

Maj-Gen Shaukat said that on October 8, army helicopters evacuated hundreds of injured civilians from the affected areas while only 277 injured army personnel were airlifted.

He said 476 army men died in the earthquake and 716 were injured, adding that reports of huge losses of army personnel were baseless and exaggerated.

“Why should we hide army casualties in the earthquake?” he countered. He said it was not possible to conceal facts as the government had to pay pension and compensation to the families of the victims.

He said army aviation’s MI 17 helicopters had taken off from Qasim Base in Rawalpindi for Muzaffarabad and Bagh at 9.20am while more and more information was pouring in from the forward areas.

He said he had established telephonic contact with Chief of Staff (COS) 10 Corps Brig Tahir Ashraf to get the latest information soon after feeling the tremors at 8.51am. He said he had also called the Chief of General Staff (CGS) and was told that there had been tremendous damage and many villages might have been wiped out.

Maj-Gen Shaukat said the Rawalpindi-based 111 Brigade was on the move towards Margalla Towers before 9.30am after being issued orders for an immediate disaster relief operation.