PESHAWAR, Oct 19: Death toll in the five quake-hit districts of the NWFP rose to 37,958 on Wednesday, almost three times more than the figures given by the provincial government on Tuesday.

At the daily briefing at the Home and Tribal Affairs department on situation in the affected areas, NWFP Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai said that relief workers had recovered 24,482 bodies from different villages of Mansehra over the past 24 hours.

He said 16 bodies were found by people in different parts of Kohistan district on Tuesday. He said it showed that a large number of people were still buried in the debris in four districts of Hazara region. The death toll could increase further after the clearance of debris, he added.

Relief workers, he said, had brought 110 more injured from different areas of Mansehra district and admitted them to hospitals. The situation in Battagram, Shangla and Abbottabad districts remained unchanged, with displaced people desperately waiting for blankets, waterproof tents, woollen clothes and medicines, Mr Daudzai added.

About complaints of delay in undertaking the rescue operation, he said heavy machinery was required to remove the debris from devastated areas of Mansehra.

He said Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, who has been encamped in Mansehra for several days, was supervising the relief operation.

He was asked that when workers of religious organization could reach the mountains and supply relief goods to people stranded in the inaccessible villages, why had government agencies and departments not been able to send their employees to such areas.

He said that local residents and volunteers knew more about their areas than government employees. Army troops are using mules for taking relief goods to remote villages. He said the NWFP government had requested Pakistanis living in Gulf states and other Islamic countries to send their donations to the provincial government, for which an account (CD 531-00-9), under the title of Chief Minister’s Earthquake Relief Fund, had been opened at the main branch of the Bank of Khyber in the city.

Mr Daudzai said a Pakhtoon living in Dubai talked to him by telephone and said the Pakhtoons had convened a Jirga in Dubai and decided to collect funds for rehabilitation of the affected people. He said they would remit their contributions to the CM’s Earthquake Relief Fund. He said the federal and provincial governments were trying hard to procure of waterproof tents, but the item was not available in the market.

The minister said that newly elected councillors, nazims and naib nazims should be involved in the relief and rehabilitation operation, because the government agencies alone could not execute the relief plan. He said the local elected leadership knew more about their areas than anyone else.

He said government would take action against those transporters and businessmen who were involved in wrongdoings during transportation of goods to the upper part of the country.