INDIA: Relief work in Earthquake-hit Kashmir hampered due to fresh landslides while Prime Minister Manmohan Sing visits Uri

Record ID: 1377427

  • Title: INDIA: Relief work in Earthquake-hit Kashmir hampered due to fresh landslides while Prime Minister Manmohan Sing visits Uri
  • Date: 12th October 2005
  • Summary: AN INJURED BOY BEING PROVIDED WITH DRESSING
  • Embargoed: 27th October 2005 05:42
  • Keywords:
  • Location: India
  • Country: India
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA3VJVSSQUNYZ2ZP683TLQM3C0W
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: India's paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) said on Tuesday (October 11, 2005) relief work in quake-hit Kashmir has been hampered due to fresh landslides triggered by heavy rainfall in the valley.
    The weekend tremor, South Asia's worst in a century, has killed at least 2,000 people in Indian Kashmir and may have killed up to 41,000 in Pakistani Kashmir and Pakistan.
    At least 21,000 people have died across the border in Pakistan where authorities fear double that number could have lost their lives.
    An army spokesman said about 50 soldiers posted along the heavily militarised ceasefire line with Pakistan has also died.
    BSF, which is engaged in one of the mammoth relief and rescue works in the valley with other defence forces, also rescued more people from Tangdhar --one of the worst hit areas.
    Tangdhar located 150 kilometres from main city Srinagar is a mere 50 kilometres from Muzaffarabad, epicentre of the quake.
    K.Srinivasan, Deputy Inspector General of BSF said bad weather condition was hampering relief work.
    "We are fighting against entire weather conditions. You can see that the roads leading to posts are all blocked as a result we are unable to send them to the posts and affected villages as there are heavy landslides. We are sending all the relief material through air only. We are hopeful that once the roads are cleared we will be to step up our relief and rescue work," he said after fresh batch of villagers were rescued from Tangdhar.
    Meanwhile India's prime minister on Tuesday pledged to rebuild the lives of thousands of people in Indian Kashmir whose world was destroyed by South Asia's earthquake, declaring it "a national calamity".
    Manmohan Singh announced $110 million in extra federal aid -- taking the total package to almost $145 million -- after touring the worst-hit areas along the ceasefire line separating Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.
    "Those who are dead can't return, but I want to assure you in this hour of grief that the one billion population of India and the government of India is with you," Singh said in a public address in Uri, a once bustling riverside trading town all-but destroyed by Saturday's 7.6 magnitude quake.
    "I'm sure we will once again help you to start a new life like generating employment and providing houses there will not be any constraints," Singh added.
    But as efforts to find the dead and trapped survivors and keep the living alive continued, there was more separatist violence in the troubled state, where more than 45,000 people have died in a 16-year anti-Indian insurgency.
    Indian troops and militants in the area have clashed daily despite Saturday's quake.
    Indian officials say at least some guerrilla camps were destroyed by the tremor, but the impact on the militants' ability to fight is unknown.
    The Indian army, which has almost half a million troops in the disputed Himalayan region, also lost scores of soldiers in the quake and is heavily tied up in rescue and aid operations.
    Despite the military mobilisation, survivors complain help is slow to come, and has not come at all in some areas.
    Authorities say the mountainous areas, already tough to access, are now even harder to reach because of landslides.
    Kashmiri families have been divided by more than half a century of war and tension between nuclear armed India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars.
    A bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, began this year to reunite families.
    But the quake damaged the Aman Setu, or Peace Bridge, crossing the frontier, and the main highway, forcing a suspension of the service and trapping some passengers on either side.
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