ALPURI: Cheques worth Rs600,000 each were given to heirs of 49 dead while around 2,500 tents and 4,000 blankets were distributed among the earthquake affected people in Shangla district on Monday.

Addressing a joint media briefing here, Shangla district disaster management officer Engineer Taimur Khan Afridi and Pak Army’s Maj Mudassar said Shangla was the worst affected district in Malakand division where 49 people had been killed and hundreds of others injured during the devastating earthquake.

Maj Mudassar said that survey to assess damage across the district was underway, adding relief distribution points had been set up at various places to facilitate the affected people. He said over 6,000 houses were destroyed in Shangla alone.

Our Peshawar Bureau adds: The Pakistan Red Crescent (PRC), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter, has distributed non-food items worth Rs70 million among 1,536 earthquake affected families of Malakand Agency and Torghar district.

The PRC distributed 350 relief packages in Swat, 236 in Shangla, 250 in Lower Dir, 150 in Upper Dir, 200 each in Malakand and Torghar and 150 in Chitral.

Each package -- meant for one family -- included 14 corrugated galvanised iron sheets, one shelter tool kit, a kitchen set, a stove, two tarpaulin sheets, two jerry cans and seven blankets.

Earlier, about 11 teams comprising PRC officials and volunteers had conducted assessment in the far flung areas of the quake hit regions after which the distribution was made.

The packages were distributed among the families whose houses were completely destroyed in the earthquake.

Furthermore, a medical camp was also set up in Torghar district for two days in which over 500 patients were examined and provided free medicines.

The PRC also plans to deploy mobile health units in Torghar, Shangla and Swat districts in the coming days. Similarly, more than 400 packages would also be distributed soon.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2015

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