..........Earth QUake... more details! - Page 3

I just got the news that. kal saye leh kar aab taak. Pakistan main 18 earthquakes aachukaye hain. aur her thori dear baad aarhye hain.

two small cites/villages (Ghari Habibibullah, and Balakot) have totally vanished from the earth. no sigh of life found.

70% of Manshera is distroyed.

there is a lot of landsliding. in the mountain areas of Pakistan.

Allah saab ko apni hifazat main rakhye. Ameen

Quake's terrible toll is revealed

People dug through the rubble with bare hands Pakistan says more than 18,000 have been killed by Saturday's powerful earthquake that also hit northern India and Afghanistan. The 7.6-magnitude quake, with an epicentre 80km (50 miles) north-east of Islamabad, flattened entire villages. Another 40,000 people are believed to be injured, said military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan. Several countries have offered to help, with US President Bush and UN chief Kofi Annan expressing their concern. "The people of the United States offer our deepest sympathies for the loss of life and destruction," said George W Bush in a statement. Mr Annan said he was "deeply saddened by the loss of life" and announced that the UN was sending a team to co-ordinate relief efforts. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the government was sending $177,000, along with 60 medical staff, emergency workers and foreign office staff. The US has promised $100,000. India, a long-time rival with Pakistan for control over Kashmir, has also offered to help with rescue operations. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has described the quake as a "test of the nation". Map of earthquake zone Maj-Gen Sultan told the BBC that the government's priorities were to evacuate those in need of medical care, establish medical treatment centres on the ground, and provide shelter for thousands of homeless people. He said clearing debris on the roads was also of prime importance, as landslides and rain were hampering relief efforts. Help needed The earthquake, which hit at 0350GMT on Saturday, was felt as far away as the Afghan capital, Kabul, and India's capital, Delhi. Several aftershocks followed. It is thought to be the strongest earthquake to hit the region in a century. In one incident, around 250 children were said to have died when two schools collapsed in the North-West Frontier Province's Mansehra district. About 200 soldiers are also thought to have been killed by landslides and falling debris. I could only do one thing which was to pick people out of the rubble and with my bare hands I started to dig Karam Umrani Islamabad police officer Eyewitness: 'Cries haunt me' Send us your comments In Mansehra, shop owner Haji Fazal Ilahi lost his wife, two daughters and his brother when their house collapsed. "I could see rocks and homes tumbling down the mountains," said Mr Ilahi, who was driving home to his village when the earthquake struck. "When I reached my village, there was nothing left of my home," he told the Associated Press news agency. The earthquake's epicentre was close to Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Rescue teams have reportedly been airlifted into the city. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said almost 50% of all homes in the area had been destroyed. Landslides have blocked all access roads to the city, where there is no electricity and telephones. Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said that the final death toll may run into several thousand. Islamabad collapse Rescuers worked through the night in the ruins of the upmarket Margala Towers residential complex in Islamabad. Heavy diggers tugged huge chunks of rubble off a mound of collapsed, compacted apartment floors. Pakistan and India suffer after a massive earthquake In pictures More than 20 bodies had been found by Sunday morning, and about 90 people were pulled alive from the rubble. "We heard screams of people last night but we haven't heard anything today," rescue worker Liquat Ali Khan, who used to work as a plumber at the apartments, told the Reuters news agency. The tower blocks were the only buildings to collapse in Islamabad. Indian officials reported nearly 300 deaths in Indian-administered Kashmir, among them 15 soldiers. The town of Uri, close to the Line of Control that separates divided Kashmir, was worst hit, with 104 dead. The administration is working overtime to restore essential supplies like electricity and water disrupted by the earthquake, says the BBC's Altaf Hussain in Srinagar.

www.bbc.co.uk

Quake toll may cross 40,000

ISLAMABAD: The death toll following Saturday's massive earthquake rose to 35,000 on Sunday, with 30,000 victims in Azad Kashmir alone.

The death toll in the NWFP reached 9,000, including 7,000 deaths in Hazara. At the Margalla Towers, Islamabad, 25 deaths have been confirmed. Thousands of people trapped under the debris of collapsed buildings in AJK and NWFP districts still await rescue.

AJK Minister for Works and Communication Tariq Farooq Sunday said: "Our rough estimates say more than 30,000 people have died in the earthquake in Kashmir." "There are cities, there are towns which have been completely destroyed. Muzaffarabad is devastated," he added, referring to the capital of Azad Kashmir.

The worst hit place was Bagh, 40 kilometres southeast of Muzaffarabad, Farooq said. Between 6,000 and 7,000 people are estimated to have died in the town and adjoining areas, he said. "There are no survivors in villages like Jaglari, Kufalgarh, Harigal and Baniyali in Bagh district," Farooq said. "People have been devoured by the earth."

Kashmir Affairs Minister Faisal Hayat, said half of Kashmir has been "severely affected by the earthquake. Out of a population of 2.4 million more than half is affected," apparently referring to those displaced, injured or killed.

Army helicopters were engaged to shift the injured people to the hospitals of Murree, Abbottabad and other hospitals. No medical camp could be installed so far; people were being given first aid at open places and in streets.

However, the UN teams have reached in the area but rescue work could not be started so for. In Azad Kashmir, Neelum Valley, Bagh, Rawala Kot, Leepa Valley, and sideline area of River Nelum were the most affected areas where a number of villages were razed. At Chehla Bandi, a building of a hospital collapsed completely and a number of patients and hospital staff were buried under the debris. Only some of them were rescued.

ISLAMABAD: Death toll in the Margalla Tower collapse was increased to 25 including three foreigners, Sunday. Eighty-two injured people were under treatment in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), spokesman of the PIMS Dr Wasim Khawaja told The News.

He said a state of emergency has been declared in all the hospitals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. As many as 17 teams of doctors have been sent to various affected areas of Azad Kashmir and NWFP, he added.

Margalla Tower, a residential plaza in F-10 Markaz, was collapsed following a strong earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale caused widespread devastation to life and property in Pakistan, Saturday morning. Dozens of people are still trapped in the debris of the Tower.

Meanwhile, a 42-member British Rescue team 'Canis', equipped with latest technology and sniffing dogs, has taken control of the rescue operation at the Tower and took out seven people alive from the debris. The army experts kept supervising the operation.

A 19-member rescue team of Abu Dubai Police has also joined the rescue operation. The UK's rescuers pulled out ten dead bodies in a slow but targeted operation. The team avoided to use heavy machinery but made use of a device for detecting the lives trapped under the debris.

The sniffing dogs could not help the rescuers to detect the exact location where the wounded or dead bodies were lying. However, the device technology played a vital role to detect the location of the dead and survivors. Emotional scenes were witnessed during the search and rescue operation that continued for the second day today.

People were keenly watching those engaged in the 'search and rescue' operation. And each time one of them crosses his arms over his head, a silence would prevail in the crowd. Expectations would soar and if the signal is positive, announcing a 'survivor', the crowd would cheer and shout in appreciation of the efforts made by the person and if the signal is in negative, announcing a dead body, the heads would bow in gloom and many would not be able to control voicing their anguish loudly.

Over 600 wounded people were brought to PIMS from various affected areas of Azad Kashmir and NWFP while 134 were under treatment in Polyclinic, 27 in CDA Hospital, 357 in CMH, 117 in Military Hospital, 123 in District Headquarters Hospital (Rawalpindi), 67 in Fauji Foundation Hospital, 129 in Holy Family Hospital, 117 in Rawalpindi General Hospital and 38 in Railway Hospital.

ABBOTTABAD: The death toll rises to 7,000 in Hazara. Eye-witnesses told The News that six educational institutions including Shaheen Girls Degree College and Shaheen Boys Commerce college, Government Girls High School and Government Primary School in Balakot were destroyed causing loss of more than 2,500 lives.

Mukhtiar Ahmed, talking to The News from Balakot by phone, said that the town was completely ruined. He said thousands of people were buried alive under the debris. Saeen Khan, another resident of Balakot, whose son Zeeshan, a student of 1st year is seriously injured and admitted to Ayub Teaching Hospital, said that more than 500 students were buried alive under the debris in Shaheen Commerce College.

He said Girls High School comprising 1,100 students was destroyed and only a few students could be evacuated. Similarly Primary School Balakot has 175 students out of whom only 25 could be saved.

Most of the buildings were devastated and roads were destroyed. More than ten thousand people were feared dead in Balakot and its surroundings, said locals. The survivors are facing acute shortage of food, drinking water and medicines. Shohal Mohaz Zullah and other adjacent villages were also badly damaged during the earthquake, said Afzal. He said they lost 17 people including twelve children in their village.

More than 700 injured were brought to Ayub Teaching Hospital and were lodged under tents in main parks. They were provided food stuff, blanket and medicines while doctors and paramedical staff had been discharging their duties for the last 48 hours.

Chief Executive Ayub Medical College & Teaching Hospital Professor Dr Sajjad Ahmed told The News that they have so far provided medical treatment to over 1,500 patient. He said that general public has donated blankets, medicines and tents.

He said the government should provide sufficient resources to the hospital to cope with the situation. In Abbottabad district the death toll increased to 300. SSP Abbottabad Syed Feroz Shah told The News that more than 200 people died in Bakote circle, while hundreds of others were injured.

Nazim Union Council Bakote Nazeer Abbassi said that death toll is higher in the area as 100 deaths were reported from village Khan Kalan alone. He said 95 houses were completely destroyed.

Naveed Akran Abbassi, a local journalist, confirmed death of 241 people in the area. He said that 90 per cent people are shelterless and need food, drinking water and medicines.

BALAKOT/PESHAWAR: Thousands of people are reported dead and tens of thousands trapped in the northern districts of NWFP as the rescue operation commenced in the remotest parts of the province with the arrival of army and aid workers on Sunday.

Evacuation was going on in the mountainous districts of Battagram, Shangla, Abbottabad, Kohistan, Manshera and its worst-hit part, Balakot.

The local police authorities told The News that bodies of 250 school children have been evacuated from the collapsed school building in Garhi Habibullah. Tens of bodies were also recovered from two schools in Balakot and Garhi Habibullah.

Ninety per cent buildings of Balakot city and surrounding villages have been razed while thousands of inhabitants are still waiting for help under the debris.

The cranes and rescue workers are yet to reach many of the inaccessible areas and are so far busy opening roads.

People of the affected districts had to spend another night under open sky as rain and hailstorm further increased their miseries. Some locals feared the death toll in the region might be double than the officially confirmed figure of 19,000 to 20,000.

According to locals screams of people including children trapped under the debris could be heard, crying for rescue. "There are many chances of survival under debris, but unfortunately there is a lack of rescue operations," said a local, adding a man was rescued today after hours-long efforts.

An army official has termed the reports of deaths of thousands of people in NWFP as exaggerated while the police chief of the province said the number has crossed the figure of 2,000. "We could not assess the death toll so far but the relief operation is going on in full swing," NWFP senior minister Sirajul Haq told reporters when questioned about the actual number of casualties.

NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has termed the destruction the biggest in the history of NWFP, which has left thousands dead and injured. Durrani visited the affected areas in Mansehra, Kohistan, Balakot, Battal, Abbottabad and Battagram.

A team of 16 surgeons has been sent to Abbottabad to take part in rescue operations while the government has directed sending ten more specialists. The government would also set up base camp for relief activities in Mansehra from where relief operations in Battal, Shangla, Battagram and other areas would be monitored.

Several teams of philanthropists have left for Mansehra, Battagram, Balakot, Shanglapar, Kohistan and Abbottabad to hand over relief goods and participate in rescue work. "The situation is terrible in Battal and other parts. People have lost most of their relatives and they have no shelter to live in," Dr Shaukat Ali told The News from the affected area on telephone.

The aid workers were critical of the state-run television and other private networks for ignoring the worst-hit Hazara region and some parts of Malakand. "They are just focussing on a building in Islamabad that would have killed less than one hundred people. But there is nobody to show to the world that thousands of women, men and children have been killed and the whole cities have been destroyed," one Mohammad Ali complained.

The district hospitals in Mansehra, Battagram and Abbottabad were crowded with wounded people who have been evacuated form the debris of their houses and offices. Several injured were shifted to the major hospitals in Peshawar and Islamabad.