Quake may leave 40,000 dead in Pak

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's worst earthquake that wiped out entire villages in Kashmir and caused widespread death and destruction elsewhere may have claimed up to 40,000 lives, the head of a rescue agency said on Monday.

Official sources are already putting the figure of the dead from Saturday's disaster at anything between 20,000 and well over 30,000.

"There are widespread deaths. In (Pakistani) Kashmir nothing is left. Death is ruling Muzaffarabad city," Abdul Sattar Edhi, who runs the country's largest welfare network, said after visiting the quake-hit areas.

Edhi said the toll would be much higher than what the government was saying.

"It may cross 40,000 and, may be, even more than that," Edhi said, adding he had distributed hundreds of thousands of shrouds in several areas of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Kashmir.

The magnitude of the disaster caused by Saturday's earthquake has stunned the nation, resulting in closure of businesses and educational institutions.

The government has announced a three-day mourning for those killed in the quake.

Some reports have put the number of injured at nearly half a million. Aftershocks of Saturday's earthquake which measured 7.6 on the Richter scale continued to rock Pakistan.

Except for the estimated 7,000 who perished in Mansehra, Balakot and adjoining areas in the NWFP, all the casualties took place in Pakistani Kashmir, where the epicentre of the killer earthquake lay.

In Muzaffarabad, most houses, government buildings and shops have collapsed and frightened residents spent chilly nights camped in fields, parks, graveyards and cars.

Minister for Kashmir Affairs Faisal Saleh Hayat on Sunday put the death toll in Muzaffarabad and other Kashmir areas alone at more than 30,000.

Almost 70 percent of the buildings in Muzaffarabad have been destroyed or damaged, according to the presidential spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, who took the foreign media on a helicopter tour of the devastated areas...

Television pictures of the areas indicated that massive relief efforts were required because hundreds of children were believed buried under collapsed schools.

People were also trapped in destroyed mud and brick houses and concrete buildings in isolated villages and towns.

"About four million people have been affected by the quake. The loss in five Azad Kashmir districts and six northern districts of NWFP is colossal," said Zafar Iqbal, a UN official.

Seismographs in the country have registered 97 aftershocks only a few of them perceptible since the main quake hit the region at 8:52 am on Saturday.


The international community has joined the massive rescue and relief operations undertaken by the Pakistan government.

The rescue efforts have come up against broken and blocked roads and bridges and shortage of relief materials.

A British Rapid Rescue team went into action at the site of the residential building that collapsed in Islamabad. So far 21 bodies and 100 trapped residents have been brought out from the debris of the 10-storey building.

China, Russia, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Germany and Saudi Arabia have also sent teams while US President George W. Bush announced 10 helicopters for rescue work.