3-Day National Mourning: Deaths by Quake swell over 35,000 in Pakistan  
Pakistan Times Special Report

ISLAMABAD: With a lot of people still stranded beneath the wreckage and rubble in diverse vicinities of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, the digit of deaths by killer quake mounted still more, taking it close over 35,000 with more than double of it still missing or got injured, credible sources said on Sunday.

While the process of fatalities count is in progress, only in one city, Bagh in Azad Kashmir lost over 10, 000 lives while another 15,000 were still missing. Almost identical situation persists in many more cities, towns and villages of the State where more or less 60 to 70 percent houses, shops, offices, schools, colleges, sheds, hospitals and alike lodgings have been razed, turning the locales into ruins.

Never before such a horrifying situation was witnessed by the people of Jammu & Kashmir in pre or post-era of 1947, when the century-old frightful Dogra regime came to an end with the emergence of Pakistan on the global Atlas after the exitof British rule from South Asia.

The slayer shivers did not spare any-one, irrespective of age, gender and even one’s status, may he or she was a Minister in Azad Kashmir, MP, politician or a high official.

Eminent Causalities

Information, ascertained by ‘PakistanTimes.net’ from authentic sources at the Mujahid Manzil, the headquarters of the ruling All Jammu & Kashmir Muslim Conference say; that those who died by quake also included MP Shereen Wahid while her spouse Abdul Wahid Khan , whose father late Khan Abdul Hamid Khan was the Prime Ministerof Azad Kashmir, is missing with his son, Commissioner Muhammad Rahim withhis family, Rafi-ud-Din, the son of eminent political figure Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who is brother of the AJKMC Supreme Head and ex-President of Azad Kashmi Sardar Muhammad Abdul Qayyum Khan, a great intellectual and journalist Abdul Aziz Sulayria, a female Judge and a young and brilliant student Usman Nasim, son of Major Muhammad Nasim and nephew of Mumtaz Hamid Rao, Editor of Pakistan’s first daily E-newspaper, ‘PakistanTimes.net’.

AJK Minister for Tourism Mufti Mansoor-ur-Rehman is also reported missing. Yet, the result of his fate could not be acquired as no one was in a position to say any thing authentic about the Minister. However, a final word about his safety is expected to be known in the later hours today, Monday.

Names of still more eminent personalities are being detected at a Camp Office in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir.

At the same time, almost double of the figure were got injured, most of them seriously by the powerful earthquake which flattened entire villages of mud-brick homes, triggered landslides and toppled a 10-story apartment building in
Islamabad on Saturday.

Up-date reports say that most of the areas in Azad Kashmir give a deserted look with debris and ruins all-around. There was hardly any house which was not affected by the quake as roofs of most of the typical Kashmiris dwellings fell down all of a sudden, placing lots of people beneath and raising hue and cry for recovery from the rubbles.

Perspective

The killer tremors which erupted with hefty jerks and jolts at the initial stage at 8:50 PST [03:50 GMT] devastated a mountainous swath touching Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

Some reports suggest that the death toll had jumped to 25,000. But the report, which included casualties mostly in Azad Kashmir have, by now given no source for this stature and there was no immediate confirmation from officials.

Yet, if in the wake of destroyed road ways, prompt aid does not reach the affected populous the toll will rise, still more.

The government of Pakistan pronounced a 3-day mourning to pay respects and homage to all those who have lost their lives, including several army men who were engaged in rescue operations.

The casualty toll from the 7.6-magnitude tremor rose sharply Sunday as rescuers struggled to dig people from the wreckage, their work made more difficult as rain and hail turned dirt and debris into sticky muck.

Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's chief army spokesman said early Sunday that more than 18,000 had been killed, 17,000 of them in Azad Kashmir, where the quake was centred. Almost 41,000 people were injured, he said.

"The death toll is gradually rising," Sultan told ‘PakistanTimes.net’, the first independent daily web newspaper of Pakistan. He said authorities had counted the bodies.

Aftershocks

For hours, aftershocks rattled many areas in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir. Hospitals moved quake victims onto lawns, fearing tremors could cause more damage, and many people spent the night in the open.

The earthquake, which struck in the wee hours on Saturday, caused buildings to sway for about two minutes in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan.

Communications Cut-off

Panicked people ran from homes and offices, and communications were cut off in many areas. A major devastation also occurred in the mountains of northern Pakistan, where the dead included 250 girls crushed at a school and 200 soldiers on duty in the Himalayas.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centred about 60 miles northeast of the capital, Islamabad and in the forested mountains of Azad Kashmir, and was followed by 22 aftershocks, including a 6.2-magnitude temblor.

"It is a national tragedy," an official spokesman said earlier. "This is the worst earthquake in recent times."

In Mansehra area of NWFP, about 90 miles northwest of the federal capital, a shopowner named Haji Fazal Ilahi stood vigil over the body of his 14-year-old daughter, which lay under a sheet on a hospital mattress. He said his wife, another daughter and a brother also died when the family's house fell.

"I could see rocks and homes tumbling down the mountains," said Ilahi, who was driving to his village of Garlat when the quake struck. "When I reached my village, there was nothing left of my home."

Soldiers Die

Some 215 Pakistani soldiers died with almost 400 injured in Azad Kashmir while carrying out relief and rescue operations to save trapped people in the tremors-hit vicinities, ISPR chief Major General Shaukat Sultan said.

In Pakistan's north western district of Mansehra, the police chief, Ataullah Khan Wazir, said authorities there pulled the bodies of 250 students from the wreckage of one girls' school in the village of Ghari Habibibullah.

Dozens of children were feared killed in other schools.

Educational Institutions Closed

The NWFP government has ordered closure of all the educational institutions in the province for the security and safety of student, for one week.

The administration in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad has also announced one-day closure of schools and colleges today, Monday for the same reason.

Bush Condoles

The United Nations sent an emergency coordination team to Pakistan. President Bush offered condolences, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was ready to help.

"At this difficult time, the United States stands with its friends in Pakistan, just as they stood with us and offered assistance after Hurricane Katrina," Rice said in a statement.

As was reported earlier, in Pakistan, President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz ordered the military to extend all-out help to quake-hit areas and appealed to the nation to stay calm.

Food Dropping

Helicopters and C-130 transport planes took troops and supplies to damaged areas, but landslides and rain hindered rescue efforts.

The only serious damage reported in Pakistan's capital was the collapse of a 10-story apartment building, where at least 10 people were killed and 126 were injured.

Hospital doctors said the dead included an Egyptian diplomat, and the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said two Japanese were killed.

A man named Rehmatullah who lived near the apartment building said dust enveloped the wreckage.

"I rushed down, and for some time you could not see anything because of the dust. Then we began to look for people in the rubble," he said. "We pulled out one man by cutting off his legs." "It was like hell," added Nauman Ali, who lives in a nearby building. "I was tossed up in my bed and the ceiling fan struck against the roof."

Aided by two large cranes, hundreds of army soldiers and police men helped remove chunks of concrete, one of which was splattered with blood. One rescue worker said he heard faint cries from people trapped in the rubble.

In Abbotabad, north of Islamabad, dozens of injured quake victims and other patients lay on the lawn of the city hospital as staff with loudspeakers appealed to the public for food and other relief supplies.

One of the injured was an 8-year-old boy, Qadeer, whose father, a farmer named Jehangir, said the only buildings left standing in their village were a mosque and a school. Qadeer lay unconscious, his right leg heavily bandaged.

Authorities laid out dozens of bodies under sheets in a damaged sports stadium in Muzaffarabad.

Grid Station in Mirpur Damaged

A main grid station of electric supply also collapsed in Mirpur city of Azad Kashmir. This disrupted power supply to a vast terrain in and around this city, which is fast developing. Most of the people, belonging to Mirpur live in different parts of the world, with UK atop.

Reports of the magnitude of damage to houses and the extent of causalities as a result of earthquake in Mirpur could not get disseminated as most of the towns and villages in this district are located in remote and far-off areas.

India Reax

India's government offered condolences and assistance to Pakistan, a long-time rival with which it has been pursuing peace efforts after fighting three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.

"While parts of India have also suffered from this unexpected natural disaster, we are prepared to extend any assistance with rescue and relief which you may deem appropriate," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a message to President of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

In-depth

Villagers desperate to find survivors dug with bare hands Sunday through the debris of a collapsed school where children had been heard crying beneath the rubble after a massive earthquake. Pakistani officials said the death toll ranged
between nearly 20,000 and 30,000.

Pakistan's President called Saturday's magnitude-7.7 earthquake the country's worst on record and appealed for urgent help, particularly cargo helicopters to reach remote areas.

In mountainous Himalayan State of Jammu & Kashmir, the quake flattened dozens of villages and towns, crushing schools and mud-brick houses. The dead included 250 girls at a school razed to the ground and more than 200 Pakistani soldiers on duty in the Himalayas.

The quake was felt across a wide swath of South Asia from central Afghanistan to western Bangladesh. It swayed buildings in the capitals of three nations, with the damage spanning at least 250 miles from Jalalabad in Afghanistan to Srinagar in northern Indian territory. In Islamabad, a 10-story building collapsed.

"We are handling the worst disaster in Pakistan's history," chief army spokesman said.

Officials said Balakot was one of the hardest-hit areas. Near the ruins of one collapsed school, at least a dozen bodies were strewn on the streets of the devastated village of about 30,000. At least 250 pupils were feared trapped inside the rubble of the four-story school.

Dozens of villagers, some with sledgehammers but many without tools, pulled at the debris and carried away bodies. Faizan Farooq, a 19-year-old business administration student, said he had heard children under the rubble crying for help immediately after Saturday's disaster.

"Now there's no sign of life," he said Sunday. "We can't do this without the army's help. Nobody has come here to help us."

Helicopters and C-130 transport planes took troops and supplies to damaged areas Sunday. However, landslides and rain hindered rescue efforts, blocking roads to some remote areas.

There was no sign of government help in Balakot, in the North West Frontier Province about 60 miles north of Islamabad. The quake leveled the village's main bazaar, crushing shoppers and strewing gas cylinders, bricks, tomatoes and onions on the streets.

Injured people covered by shawls lay in the street, waiting for medical care. Residents carried bodies on wooden planks. The corpses of four children, aged between 4 and 6, lay under a sheet of corrugated iron. Relatives said they were trying to find sheets to wrap the bodies. "We don't have anything to bury them with," said a cousin, Saqib Swati.

Elsewhere in Balakot, shop owner Mohammed Iqbal said two primary schools, one for boys and one for girls, also collapsed. More than 500 students were feared dead.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf appealed to the international community for medicine, tents, cargo helicopters and related assistance.

"We do seek international assistance. We have enough manpower but we need financial support ... to cope with the tragedy," Musharraf said in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad, before touring devastated areas.

He told the British Broadcasting Corp. the only way to reach many far-flung areas was by helicopter because roads were buried by landslides.

"Our helicopter resources are limited," he told the BBC. "We need massive cargo helicopter support."

The President said he knew of as many as 20,000 people killed, but "I wouldn't be able to make an accurate assessment for days."

The United States, the United Nations, Britain, Russia, China, Turkey, Japan and Germany all offered assistance. An eight-member U.N. team of top disaster coordination officials arrived in Islamabad on Sunday to plan the global body's
response.

In Pakistan's northwestern district of Mansehra, police chief Ataullah Khan Wazir said Saturday that authorities there pulled 250 bodies from the rubble of a girls' school in the village of Ghari Habibibullah. Dozens of children were feared killed in other schools.

The only serious damage reported in Islamabad was the collapse of a 10-story apartment building, where at least 24 people were killed and dozens were injured.

Doctors said the dead included an Egyptian diplomat, and the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said two Japanese were killed.

On Sunday, Pakistani rescue teams pulled two survivors from the rubble. The boy and woman, who were listed in stable condition, told doctors others were trapped alive and calling for help beneath the debris.

"These people heard voices and cries during the whole night," said Adil Inayat, a doctor at PIMS hospital in Islamabad.

The death toll in India held-Kashmir rose Sunday to 465 after rescue workers and soldiers pulled out 90 more bodies in the frontier Tangdar region, 65 miles north of Srinagar. Most of the deaths were in the border towns of Uri, Tangdar
and Punch and Srinagar, where the quake collapsed houses and buildings.

Hundreds of angry villagers blocked roads in the region Sunday, protesting the slow pace of rescue efforts by India's occupation forces. On the main road between Baramulla and the border town of Uri, locals demanded that journalists and soldiers with aid go to their mountainside villages.

"Everything is destroyed — the ground shook and took everything down," said Syad Hassan, pointing toward the peaks surrounding the valley road. "All the government people, the press people, they are just driving past."

Most people in Jammu-Kashmir spent the night in the open, lighting fires with wood pulled out from fallen houses to keep warm in the near-freezing temperatures.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 60 miles northeast of Islamabad, six miles below the forested mountains of Azad Kashmir.

That was followed by at least 22 aftershocks within 24 hours, including a 6.2-magnitude temblor. Hospitals moved quake victims onto lawns, fearing more damage, and many people spent the night in the open.

Afghanistan appeared to suffer the least damage. In its east, an 11-year-old girl was crushed to death when a wall in her home collapsed, police official Gafar Khan said. Three others also died.

The U.S. military said the quake was felt at Bagram, the main American base in Afghanistan, but there were no reports of damage at bases elsewhere.●

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