'We will die of hunger, cold'
2005-10-10 11:41
Balakot - More than 48 hours after a devastating quake flattened a swathe of northern Pakistan, angry survivors on Monday begged for help that never seems to arrive.
"We survived the earthquake but now we realise we will die of hunger and cold," said Mohammad Zaheer, a survivor in the shattered northwestern town of Balakot.
Zaheer complained that the collapse of one building in the capital Islamabad, where more than 20 were killed and dozens trapped, had attracted a visit from President Pervez Musharraf.
"Yet our town has been turned into a heap of rubble and so many people have died but there is absolutely no help in the past two days," Zaheer added.
The huge international rescue effort that has swept into Pakistan has been severely hampered by treacherous mountain terrain and huge quake-triggered landslides that have wiped out most of the roads.
Especially in devastated Pakistani Kashmir, most relief teams have to be ferried in by helicopter but Musharraf has spoken of a lack of heavy transport choppers and appealed for the international community to help.
Basic needs
United States President George W. Bush has already deployed eight helicopters from neighbouring Afghanistan.
Yet the most remote villages are still without shelter, medicines, food and clean water that they need to survive the long days and cold, wet nights - and the clock is ticking.
"We don't want helicopters to hover around. All we want is blankets and water," said Amjad Anwar, an elderly resident of Battal village, near Balakot.
In affected areas people have been sleeping in the open, either because their homes have been flattened or because they are scared of aftershocks following Saturday's monster 7.6 magnitude quake.
"We are leaving because there is no aid and nothing left," said one man in a stream of people who are still leaving Balakot and heading for nearby cities that were less affected.
"There are no tents still this morning, no blankets, nothing."
Rescue teams doing their best
The government and Pakistan's powerful military, which is playing a major role in the rescue operation, say they are doing all they can to help the foreign aid teams.
At Chaklala airbase near Islamabad, major general Haider Khan said 40 helicopters were involved in the operation, evacuating 750 injured and 30 dead bodies from Muzaffarabad, the flattened capital of Pakistani Kashmir.
French and Spanish teams were due to set up field hospitals in quake-hit towns and teams from Britain, Turkey Japan, China, Iran and the United Arab Emirates were also involved in the aid effort.
"We are likely to have most of them placed in the affected areas by the end of the day to maximise our relief efforts," chief military spokesperson major general Shaukat Sultan said.
- AFP