GILGIT: Skardu Road remained blocked for the fourth day on Saturday stranding hundreds of passengers, including women and children, after an earthquake triggered landslides, blocking the artery on Wednesday.

Skardu deputy commissioner Karimdad Chughtai said a 16-kilometre stretch of the Juglot-Skardu Road was damaged in the quake, adding the Frontier Works Organisation had cleared six kilometres road of landslides. He said aftershocks hampered the rehabilitation work.

An earthquake on Wednesday left one person dead and nine others injured, besides blocking roads and damaging houses in Roundu area of Skardu.

Mr Chughtai told Dawn that the earthquake affected 6,000 households in Astak, Mandi, Ganji and Tormik union councils of Roundu subdivision. He said 36 irrigation channels; eight link roads and 12 water supply channels were damaged, besides disruption in cellular connectivity.

He said passengers stranded on the main road were being provided accommodation and food. He said relief items and medicines had been dispatched to the affected areas.

Meanwhile, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) chairman Lt-Gen Akhtar Nawaz telephoned Gilgit-Baltistan Governor Raja Jalal Hussain Maqpoon, Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid Khan and director general GB Disaster Management Authority Khalid Saleem to discuss the damages caused by the Wednesday’s earthquake and relief and rescue activities.

According to a press release issued by NDMA, the GB government in collaboration with GBDMA was utilising all available resources to provide relief to the earthquake-affected people.

It said the link roads affected by landslides had been restored, and, maintenance work on the Juglot-Skardu Road was being carried out.

The release said NDMA had dispatched one consignment of family tents through a C-130 aircraft, while another consignment of relief goods consisting of tarpaulins, blankets, ration bags and more tents would also be sent soon.

It said the Pakistan Army had conducted aerial reconnaissance of the Juglot-Skardu Road and affected areas in Roundu. The helicopter mission proved to be very effective in guiding the GB government and the GBDMA in relief activities and rehabilitation of the affected people.

Army helicopters also shifted two injured women to the Government Hospital, Skardu.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2022