Villagers flood into quake-hit Balakot area of NW Pakistan
Pakistan Times National News Desk

BALAKOT: Villagers were Thursday pouring into this devastated city in search of aid as they fled the mountains where communities were razed to the ground by Saturday's earthquake.

Hundreds of thousands of villagers from adjoining areas, the exact number impossible to verify because of the chaotic conditions here, have already arrived.

"No search team came to our village. Most people have fled and there are only the injured left. Nothing came by helicopter either," said Zaman, 28, who said he came from "the other side of the mountain" in the village of Bahngia.

Most displaced people on the bridge leading to Balakot recount the same sense of abandonment. But more aid was flying in Thursday as the overwhelmed Pakistani army was assisted by US and other foreign helicopters.

Punjab Police

Meanwhile, PT Lahore Bureau reports that Punjab has dispatched another contingent of 400 Police officers/jawans to Muzaffarabad.

A separate contingent of 50 officials of Traffic Police alongwith 8 vehicles has also been sent to Muzafarabad in order to restore the collapsed traffic system of the calamity hit areas. Two hundred tents have been sent.●