PESHAWAR, Oct 16: Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai said on Sunday that 75 more bodies had been recovered from different parts of Mansehra, Battal and Battagaram, where foreign and local teams were engaged in rescue works.
However, he said it could not be confirmed that how many bodies were stuck up under the debris of houses and landslides.
Giving his daily media briefing, he said the government had decided to place the names of displaced and orphans (boys and girls) on its website so that the parents of displaced children and relatives of orphans could make a contact with them.
The minister said 151 more injured, brought from various areas, had been admitted to hospitals, he added.
The NWFP government has extended its rescue and relief activities to the far-flung affected areas, but in some villages, where volunteers could not reach easily, social workers were carrying out welfare activities.
Mr Daudzai said continuing rains were main hurdles in the way of rescue operations. The army was sending mules loaded with blankets, tents and food items to the residents stuck up in remote villages.
He said that over 500 orphans and widows would be housed in a renovated building of health department situated in Hayatabad.
A dispensary had also been set up in the building to cater to the need of its new occupants, he added.
The works and services department, he said, had cleared some roads linking Kawai-Balakot to Mansehra, Bakot to Abbottabad, Thandiyani to Pattan, Kohala to Mulliya, Battagram to Thakot, Bishaam to Banna and Shankiari to Nawazabad for the general traffic.
He said the repairing work was underway on Pattan-Ziarat, Sherkot-Palis and Kunj-Baterra roads.
The government, he said, had replaced the old health teams with the fresh caravan of surgeons, doctors and nurses in the affected villages of Mansehra, Battal, Alai, Chhatar Plain and Battagaram.
The social welfare department had dispatched mobile health units to the badly affected villages of upper Hazara, he added.
He said the officials of the revenue department had started visiting village after village to collect data of death and destruction and submit their final assessment report to the government.
Mr Daudzai said that an order was emerging out of the disorder and chaos created by the devastation spread in three districts in Hazara.
Besides three Frontier Corps wings and highway police, at least 45 platoons of the Frontier Constabulary were engaged in maintaining traffic flow and law and order in the affected zone, he added.
He told the journalists it would take months to establish new tent village in the surroundings of destroyed towns of Balakot, Battal, Alai and etc.
For rehabilitation work anybody could contact District Executing Officer Bashir Khan (on 91-921-1700, 0321-902-2197), he said.
Mr Daudzai was told that residents of Baterra situated opposite Bishaam had been neglected by the relief organizations as no one had so far visited the calamity-hit area since Oct 8.
He said the rescue teams would be dispatched very soon to the area.
The minister said Save the Children, USAID, GTZ of Germany, FHF of Australia, Unicef, WHO, Attock Oil, University of Peshawar and Iqra university had donated 900 tents, 500 blankets, 10,000 tents, 10,000 blankets, 14 truckload of drugs, 10 mobile (hospital) vehicles, two truckload of medicines, 1,500 blankets plus 110 tents for the affected people.