GILGIT, Dec 23: The people of the quake-affected areas in Astore district are hit by depression, anxiety and other psychological disorders in the wake of the aftereffects of the tremors and tectonic activities.

People of the area said that specially the children were the worst sufferers as they were showing irritating behaviour and sleep loss had become common among them.

The people had attributed the problem to the intermittent jolts for last one month and rumours about a volcano’s eruption.

“The recurring jolts and tremors have scared the children and they often refuse to sleep inside the houses. We cannot accommodate them to doss down in the tents because of the extreme cold,” the people said.

#AKRSP:#/ The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), set up in 1982 for the development of the Northern Areas, has decided to retrench its 30 percent staff as it is going to wind up its projects in the region, reliable sources told Dawn.

The NGO was donor-driven in its entirety, mainly the foreign donors were the driving force behind the AKRSP that kept pouring in billions of dollars for various development projects since its inception, the sources added.

They said that as the donors had shifted their priorities from the Northern Areas to Afghanistan and Eastern Europe, the AKRSP ran out of funds to launch new projects in the region eventually it was being closed down.

The sources said that various field units of the AKRSP were closed down in November. Some 25 personnel in Skardu, 25 in Gilgit and 14 in Chitral were laid off through golden handshake scheme and had already auctioned a fleet of its 72 vehicles in August last and would phase out the remaining projects by March 2003.

CONTRABAND: The customs officials claimed that they had impounded contraband and firecrackers worth Rs80million that were being imported from China.