MUZAFFARABAD, Jan 29: American helicopters flew two sorties into the quake-hit zone of Azad Jammu and Kashmir early on Saturday and further relief flights were suspended by aid officials due to bad weather.

Moderate rain began to lash Muzaffarabad and its adjoining areas in the morning with forecasts for intermittent rain till Sunday night.

“Light to moderate rains will continue to fall intermittently till Sunday evening with snowfall over the high altitude mountains,” meteorological department director Ghulam Qadir Malick told Dawn from Islamabad.

The Chinooks airlifted foodstuff and corrugated iron sheets in a sling to the north of Muzaffarabad at about 8:30am and returned to the state capital after one and a half hour amid downpour which led to suspension of further flights.

“Since it’s raining, the relief flights have been suspended,” military spokesman Major Farooq Nasir told Dawn.

The aid workers, however, remained on alert at the airport even though the weather showed no change.

“The helicopters will resume flying sorties to the forward locations if the weather turns clement tomorrow,” Maj Nasir said.

The mountains surrounding Muzaffarabad had not received fresh snowfall on Saturday, but the already fallen snow was visible on high peaks behind them.

Unlike the previous two cold spells, the survivors living in crude tents did not show any signs of panic.

“Thanks God its light rain. But I am only praying it should not pick up momentum because that obviously means too many problems for us,” remarked Parveen Bibi, 46, outside her makeshift tent here.