GHARI DUPATTA, Oct 17: A key road into the quake-devastated Jhelum valley in Azad Kashmir was reopened by army bulldozers on Monday, allowing a flood of relief aid into areas previously only reached by helicopter.

An AFP reporter saw long convoys of trucks carrying supplies roll into the lower valley mid-afternoon as soon as the bulldozers had cleared a massive landslide that had blocked the road near the small quake-struck town of Garhi Dupatta.

Thousands of people also crossed into the town on foot, most of them weighed down by bags of food, clothing, tents and blankets they had managed to get from relief agencies doing distribution further up the road at Tanale.

Major Farooq Nasir, the army spokesman in Muzaffarabad, said that with the gradual reopening of blocked access routes, the army was pushing further into far-flung locations so that soldiers could carry supplies into the mountains.

The leader of Azad Kashmir put the toll from the 7.6 Richter-scale earthquake at more than 54,000.—AFP