PAKISTAN: Muzaffarabad villagers scramble for aid as relief still slow for Kashmir quake survivors

Record ID: 872698

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Muzaffarabad villagers scramble for aid as relief still slow for Kashmir quake survivors
  • Date: 13th October 2005
  • Summary: SUPPLIES STACKED IN WAREHOUSE
  • Embargoed: 28th October 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • City:
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: International Relations,Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA9TA4I66FUM1M3YG49F6VQWE4H
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Dozens of survivors looted an earthquake relief truck on the outskirts of the worst-hit city of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday (October 12).
    A frenzied melee of men battled each other to climb up on to the truck to grab boxes of bottled water, blankets, and packets of biscuits - a scene that's becoming common in Muzaffarabad where thousands have been killed.
    The relief truck was on its way to the Indian part of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
    In villages just 10 kilometres away from Muzaffarabad people say they have not yet seen any help.
    More than 150 people have been killed just in one village, and survivors say many of their loved ones remain missing trapped underneath the rubble of about 350 destroyed buildings.
    "Those who are dead are just lying there. Those who are struggling to survive, all they are being given is water. If water won't help them, then they will die," said villager, Mohammad Zafar.
    Thousands continue to live in makeshift tents which offer little protection from the searing days and bitter cold nights.
    Food and other relief aid flowed into more areas of northern Pakistan on Wednesday.
    At Chaklala Airbase, near Pakistani capital Islamabad, planeloads of international relief and helicopters with quake victims were arriving almost around the clock.
    Choppers, belonging to the military as well as to various relief organisations, flew out with relief goods at regular intervals and returned with the injured, most in a critical condition.
    But four days after the devastating earthquake many people in worst affected mountain areas has yet received any aid at all.
    "There are many areas that we have not been able to reach. The spread of the area (affected by the earthquake) is 20 000 square kilometres. It is not possible to reach each and every area on the first, second and even third day", said Pakistani army spokesman Major General Shoukat Sultan.
    Saturday's earthquake at 7.6 magnitude was the strongest to hit the region in a century and severely stretched the resources of the Pakistani army, which has headed the relief operation.
    The official toll from Saturday's quake remains at 23,000 dead and 51,000 injured in Pakistan, and 1,200 deaths on the Indian side of the border, called the Line of Control.
    The United Nations has put the toll at at least 30,000.
    Authorities are now most concerned about the weather and the onset of winter, which usually comes in mid- to late-October.

    FOREIGN AID RELIEF WORK
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