PESHAWAR, Oct 12: With the government sponsored-relief activities appearing to be still at an initial stage in the earthquake-hit parts of the Frontier province, people rendered homeless are waiting for tents and drinking water more than anything else.

Thousands of families rendered displaced because of the devastating tremors are forced to spend their lives in the open in the affected parts of the Mansehra, Battagram, Shangla and Abbottabad districts.

“ We need tents, blankets and water to protect the remaining of us,” said Nargis Bibi, a housewife who along with her family has put up, in the open, in a graveyard situated in front of the collapsed structure of her two bed room house in Garrhi Habibullah — one of the most affected parts in district Mansehra.

Her 20-year-old daughter, Raani, was buried alive under the collapsed structure of their house. Her younger daughter Nausheen, 12, has not yet been administered medical treatment after the building of the area’s hospital collapsed and the free medical camp established by the army is at a distance of some two kilometres from Garri Habibullah.

“They (army) should have set up the camp close to larger segment of population,” commented her Mushtaq Tanoli, who lost his ancestral family house to the quake.

Mr Tanoli dispatched his injured mother to a Rawalpindi hospital after there was no sign of relief activities, particularly medical treatment to the injured during the first two days following the tremors played havoc with Garrhi Habibullah.

Even people with head injuries have no other place to spend nights than the open sky in Balakot and Garrhi Habibullah where vast majority of the population has been rendered homeless by the Oct 8 jolts.

“Army should have set up the camp in the main Garrhi Habibullah Bazaar instead of Hisarri village where it would not be easy for many to take survivors with multiple injuries,” complained Munawar Tanoli, a resident of Babar Colony, Garrhi Habibullah.

Information collected from affected people revealed that the relief activities being carried out in the affected parts of Mansehra district lacked cohesion among various relief agencies.

Talking to Dawn members of several affected families complained that the relief works were not being carried out in an organized manner as a result of which the relief goods were not reaching the deserving people.

“Deserving people are not getting relief goods because of habitual beggars,” said Maulvi Hazrat Yousuf, a local prayers leader who lead 40 funeral prayers in two days in a locality of Garrhi Habibullah.

He said that the government should immediately conduct a survey to determine affected people’s needs following which the relief goods should be carried out in an organized manner. “Otherwise,” he added “ people in genuine need and those who are strictly governed by self esteem would not get relief.”

Similar views were expressed by affected people in Balakot and its adjoining areas.