. Earth Science News .
Pakistan Quake Toll Leaps To More Than 73,000

AFP file photo of a Pakistani rescue worker finding a victim's hand.
by Danny Kemp
Islamabad (AFP) Nov 02, 2005
Pakistan on Wednesday raised its death toll from last month's catastrophic earthquake to more than 73,000, making it one of the deadliest tremors in recent history.

The new figure was a jump of more than 16,000 from the number given on Tuesday and the United Nations has warned it could rise still further unless the world community gives more cash for aid efforts.

"There are 73,276 dead and 69,260 injured" from the 7.6-magnitude quake that struck on October 8, relief chief Major General Farooq Ahmad Khan told reporters in Islamabad, adding that those injured were all severe cases.

Officials in Indian Kashmir say another 1,300 people died there.

In three decades the only deadlier quakes were the 9.0-magnitude Indian Ocean tsunami in which more than 220,000 died last year, and a 8.2-magnitude quake in Tangshan, China in 1976, which killed at least 242,000 people.

Before that 80,000 and 200,000 people died in two quakes in China in 1927; 140,000 perished in the 1923 Yokohama, Japan, earthquake and fire; 235,000 died in China in 1920; and a tidal wave killed 83,000 in Messina, Italy in 1908.

Farooq appealed to the international community for tents and shelter for up to 3.8 million people hit by the disaster in Pakistan, as well as more medicines and vaccines for tetanus and other diseases.

International rescuers and helicopters were still trying to get food and shelter to tens of thousands of survivors in remote mountain areas, amid fears of a massive second wave of deaths as the Himalayan winter approaches.

Farooq said 41 villages had still not been reached. He also appealed for the world to send two air ambulances as the number of injured was set to rise.

"Just imagine how many villages and towns have become heaps of rubble and how many people got buried in the rubble," he said.

US relief helicopters took to the air Wednesday despite a suspected rocket attack on a Chinook Tuesday, but were avoiding the area where it happened. Pakistan said the crew mistook a dynamite blast for an attack.

The US said the CH-47 Chinook and seven people on board escaped unharmed after the alleged incident near Chakothi, close to the frontier dividing Pakistani and Indian Kashmir.

"Based on the evidence we have we still believe it was a rocket-propelled grenade attack, but we are continuing to investigate," Commander Nick Balice of the US Disaster Assistance Center in Islamabad told AFP.

A number of Islamic militant groups opposed to Indian rule in its part of Kashmir are known to operate in the area. Security officials say some have loose links with Al-Qaeda and hold anti-US views.

But Pakistan's military spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, insisted that the crew had not come under fire.

"We carried out the investigation and it revealed that it was blasting on the roadside by engineers, under way exactly at that time when the helicopter was flying over the area," Sultan said.

Around 90 helicopters from around the world -- including 24 from the United States and others from the United Nations, NATO and countries including Britain, Germany and Japan -- are carrying out aid flights.

"We do not have safety concerns," Vice Admiral John Stufflebeem, commander of the NATO response force relief mission, told AFP Wednesday when asked if the alleged attack on the Chinook would affect other helicopter flights.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met quake relief chiefs amid UN complaints that they have received less than a quarter of the funding they need from the international community.

Musharraf called for sustained international support in the mammoth struggle to rebuild the country's quake-shattered infrastructure and for the rehabilitation of millions of uprooted people.

The UN humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan, Jan Vandemoortele, officials from the World Health Organisation and the World Food Programme and the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Jakob Kellenberger, were among those attending the meeting.

The UN said 131 million dollars -- or 24 percent of the 550-million-dollar appeal to fund urgently needed shelter, food and medical relief -- had been received, nearly one week after donors promised more money.

related report
Kashmiri Shepherds Protest Poor Quake Relief Distribution by Jay Shankar
Lagama, India (AFP) Nov 02, 2005 - More than 250 earthquake survivors in this Kashmiri border village blocked traffic on Wednesday by staging a sit-in on the highway to protest poor distribution of quake relief by local authorities, police and witnesess said.

Residents of Gharkot village -- mostly shepherds -- threw stones at vehicles carrying officials and relief materials before being chased away by the police, a witness said.

Soon afterwards the protestors, carrying long sticks and shouting slogans against the local administration, regrouped and sat on the highway linking the village to the main town of Uri, about 95 kilometers (59 miles) northwest of the Indian Kashmir summer capital Srinagar.

They disrupted traffic for more than an hour but broke off the protest later after police and state government officials assured them a delegation would soon visit their village.

Mohammad Ashraf, a survivor of the 7.6-magnitude October 8 earthquake that devastated much of Pakistan-administered Kashmir and border areas of India's zone of the divided state, said Gharkot had received no aid so far because most residents were Gujjars (shepherds) or people from lower castes.

"All the relief materials such as rice and blankets are stolen by the rich and upper caste people living on the plains," Ashraf told AFP. "There is nothing left for the poor who are left to die in the cold."

Other villagers said despite repeated requests to government officials, nobody had turned up to assess the damage.

"We are left with no other option but to protest. At least we hope somebody will listen to our woes. This is the only way," said another villager, Mohammad Ismail.

"The politicians and influential people like the village head are diverting aid. All we got so far is some rice and a blanket," Ismail said.

Outside the government offices, people patiently waited to get an approval for 40,000 rupees (888 dollars) being offered as compensation for damaged houses.

Kurshid Ahmed, a resident of Uri, said he had already secured 12 different approvals from various officials but was yet to get the money.

"It is a nightmare. But I am not giving up," Ahmed said.

The October quake killed more than 57,000 in Pakistan while more than 1,300 people died in Indian Kashmir, most of them in Uri.

Relief Commissioner of Uri, B.A. Runyal, urged the people to remain calm.

"It requires a bit of time and that is all we are asking for. The administration is overstretched. Finally everyone will get relief," he said.

earlier related report
Mosques Struggle Through Ramadan In Quake-Hit Pakistan
Muzaffarabad, Pakistan (AFP) Nov 02 -- Mohammad Siddique has spent hours staring at the damaged masonry and the toppled minaret of the Hamam Wali mosque in the quake-devastated capital of the Pakistani zone of Kashmir.

Now he thinks he finally understands.

"When I see this destruction, I cannot control my emotions. It is due to our sins that Allah has subjected us to this trial," Siddique told AFP, wiping away tears.

Siddique, 33, was an eight-year-old child when he arrived in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, from a nearby remote village in the Neelum valley and started learning the Koran in the mosque. After finishing his religious education he attached himself to the mosque, teaching the Islamic holy book to local children and uttering the call to prayer five times a day.

Over the past 25 years he has been a witness to its gradual elevation from a normal worship place to the towns most beautiful mosque, located in the main old city near a bustling commercial area.

The mosque was always full of faithful, but during Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, their number would swell even further. Latecomers at evening prayers would find it difficult to get a place even in the back row.

But the October 8 earthquake, which left much of Muzaffarabad in ruins and killed more than 57,000 people in Pakistan, has affected that attendance.

Like the residential buildings, the majority of the mosques in Muzaffarabad also became victims of the devastating tremor that rocked the Himalayan region, shearing off whole mountainsides surrounding the city.

Almost all of the mosques have developed wide cracks, rendering them dangerous for worshippers. The Hamam Wali mosque's grand minaret still lies across the street outside, blocking traffic.

Inside the mosque, the expensive and skilful masonry was wrecked and for four days, there were no prayer gatherings at all.

"Look, we had just finished renovating the mosque at a huge cost but now everything is gone," added Siddique, showing the devastation inside the building, where a massive chandelier lies on the rubble-strewn carpet.

"Now there are hardly two rows of people at prayers. My God, I had never imagined this could happen here."

On the 20th day of Ramadan, Muslims observe a religious ritual that sees some devotees confine themselves to the mosques for meditation, including prayers and recitations from the Koran.

The ritual, called Aitikaaf, ends with the sighting of the moon that marks the end of the fasting month and the start of the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Clergymen say that at least one person must sit for Aitikaaf in the mosque or else the whole neighbourhood would be sinful in the eyes of Allah.

But Shahabuddin Asri, a senior cleric who delivers sermons at the Ahle Hadith mosque in Muzaffarabad's historic Madina Market, says Islam does not force its followers to do anything which can kill them.

His mosque is devoid of worshippers while almost all the residents of Madina Market have moved out of their fallen or cracked houses. More than 25 residents and shoppers died in the quake.

"Since several neighbourhoods have emptied and the mosques there have been rendered unfit for worship, its not a sin if nobody observes Aitikaaf there," Asri said.

Prayers have also stopped at the three other big mosques in the main old city because due to the frequent aftershocks -- more than 1,100 since the quake -- any such attempt could cost more lives. But several other less damaged mosques in other parts of the town are coming back to life and some have even allowed people to confine themselves for Aitikaaf.

Siddique recalled nostalgically that his mosque used to host 25 to 30 people for Aitikaaf in the last 10 days of Ramadan, but this time round it had none.

"I wish those golden times could return to our mosque," he said.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

Related Links
TerraDaily
Search TerraDaily
Subscribe To TerraDaily Express

Malnutrition Set To Kill More In Pakistan Quake Zone: WFP
Islamabad (AFP) Oct 31, 2005
Earthquake survivors in Pakistan will start dying from lack of food within a month if the world fails to help, and women and children will be the worst hit, the World Food Programme (WFP) said Monday.



Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only














The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.