- NDMA says 248 people have been reported dead in Pakistan, at least 1,665 injured in quake-related incidents
- Military mobilises efforts to rescue survivors, sends medical teams, tents and ration to affected areas
- Afghan officials say at least 63 people confirmed dead, hundreds more injured by Monday’s massive earthquake
Rescuers were Tuesday picking their way through rugged terrain and pockets of Taliban insurgency in the search for survivors after a massive quake hit Pakistan and Afghanistan, killing almost 300 people.
The toll is expected to rise as search teams reach remote areas that were cut off by the powerful 7.5 magnitude quake, which triggered landslides and stampedes as it toppled buildings and severed communication lines.
Residents, including children and the elderly, were helping with relief work, many of them digging beneath the rubble for survivors.
Pakistan’s military has been mobilised and has sent medical teams, tents and rations to affected areas, while India — whose relationship with Islamabad is often prickly — said it stood ready to help.
The bulk of the casualties were reported from Pakistan, where 248 people were killed and 1,665 others were injured, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
Around 4,392 houses have been damaged in the quake. According to details, 202 people have been killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 30 in FATA, nine in Gilgit-Baltistan, five in Punjab and two in AJK.
According to NDMA estimates, 1,486 people were injured in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 59 in FATA, 30 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 78 in Punjab and 12 in AJK. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the earthquake damaged 3,952 houses, in FATA 300, in Gilgit Baltistan 90 and in Punjab 44.
“Many houses and buildings have collapsed in the city,” said Arbab Muhammad Asim, district mayor of Peshawar.
Many people were trapped under piles of rubble, with officials warning that the toll was set to rise.
Pakistan mobilised troops and all military hospitals were put on high alert, army spokesperson Lt Gen Asim Bajwa said, with the air force also offering support.
The army has sent medical workers, tents and rations by road to the northwest town of Dir and by air to Chitral, Bajwa said Tuesday, while landslides on the famous Karakorum Highway were being cleared.
RELIEF EFFORTS AND COMPENSATION FOR SURVIVORS:
KP CM’s Adviser on Information Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani said the provincial government would give around Rs 0.3 million compensation to families of people that lost their lives, while Rs 0.1 million have been announced for the injured.
He further said that people whose houses had two rooms or more, which were damaged, will be compensated with over Rs 0.1 million. Houses with a single damaged room will be compensated with Rs 80,000, while Rs 30,000 will be given to people whose boundary walls were damaged in the quake.
He said that most of the damages were reported from Buner, Swat, Shangla, Dir and Malakand where people were critically injured due to the roofs collapsing. He further said that Rs 544 million were with the district government while Rs 2.5 billion fund was with the PDMA, adding that there is no shortage of funds with the government and the government will do all that it can to help people recover.
Punjab Disaster Management Authority dispatched relief goods for the earthquake victims of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to a representative of PDMA, these relief goods include 10,000 tents, 10,000 food hampers and 10,000 blankets and five-trucks loaded with 520 flour bags.
He said that one mobile hospital and three medical teams along with 150 jawans of Rescue 1122 are also being sent to the quake-hit areas of KP.
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has released 2,000 tents for the quake-affected people of KP. It has also sent 2,000 blankets and 2,000 floor mats for the victims.
SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN
Afghan officials said at least 63 people were confirmed dead and hundreds more injured, with casualties reported from around half a dozen of the country’s 34 provinces.
In the most horrifying episode to emerge so far from Monday’s quake, 12 young Afghan girls were crushed to death in a stampede as they tried to flee their shaking school building.
The government has implored aid agencies for assistance.
However, large swathes of Badakhshan, the remote province where the epicentre is located, and other areas are effectively controlled by the Taliban, posing a huge challenge to any official aid efforts.
“Today’s earthquake was the strongest one felt in the recent decades,” said Afghanistan’s chief executive Abdullah Abdullah.
“Initial reports show a big loss of life and huge financial losses in Badakhshan, Takhar, Nangarhar, Kunar and other regions. Exact numbers are not known because phone lines are down and communication has been cut off in many areas.”
The tremor, which lasted at least one minute, shook buildings in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, sending thousands of frightened people rushing into the streets. It was also felt in Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Live footage from an Afghan news broadcast filmed in Kabul showed the anchor abandoning his desk as the quake shook the cameras.
Restaurants and office buildings emptied in Islamabad, with cracks appearing in some buildings but no major damage reported.
The epicentre of Monday’s quake was just a few hundred kilometres from the site of a 7.6 magnitude quake that struck in October 2005, killing more than 75,000 people and displacing some 3.5 million more, although that quake was much shallower.