SULTANDAKI: Khatija Bibi sits beside her injured son wrapped in a woollen blanket on a stretcher in front of what was once her house in occupied Kashmir. It’s cold and the rain is pouring down as Bibi shivers, waiting for help.

“I think nobody is going to come and help us because the weather has turned ugly. It is the wrath of God,” the 45-year-old housewife says.

Tens of thousands of people in South Asia were killed by the region’s worst earthquake in a century on Saturday and survivors are now fighting a new battle in the Himalayan mountains where autumn has already set in and winter approaches.

Now they face torrential rains and sudden drops in temperature.

“We are extremely worried about the winter setting in and we will provide everyone with shelter, woollen cloths and blankets before that,” the head of India’s home department, V. K. Duggal, told reporters in New Delhi.

According to officials, more than 70,000 homes were destroyed in the quake in the worst hit area around Uri, on the Line of Control.

“We have lost everything, my father, uncle and nephew ... our homes.

“Where should I take these women and children in these conditions?” asks Abdul Rehman, walking along a muddy road to Uri along with his wife, sister and two children, all soaked from the rain.

A group of villagers carry a body on top of a jeep amid the rain.

“We desperately want tents for shelter, warm clothes for our children — otherwise they will die,” says Farooq Ahmad a resident of Uri, a once bustling town which has been all but wiped out.

The weather office has predicted more rain and lower temperatures. At night temperatures already fall to as low as 6-7 degrees Celsius.

“We want to buy tents but they are not available in the market, but our efforts will continue ... it will take next six to eight days for the required number of tents,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

The army says the bad weather is slowing, but not stopping, its rescue operation.

“Despite bad weather, all efforts are being made to send relief material to forward villages.

‘‘The bad weather has only slowed the process,” said army Colonel H. Joneja.

Soldiers are clearing roads and tracks into remote areas which were blocked by landslides from the earthquake.

The weekend tremor has killed at least 1,244 people in occupied Kashmir and has killed up to 41,000 in Pakistan.

Thousands of people led by Kashmir’s senior separatist leader and chief cleric, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, offered special prayers on Wednesday for the dead.—Reuters