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Bad weather hampering Kashmir quake relief efforts
by Bilal Butt

     Srinagar/Uri/Muzaffarabad: Bad weather is coming in the way of providing timely help to victims of the October 8 earthquake in both India and Pakistan, five days after the calamity. Though some of the aid is reaching some of the towns near the quake's epicentre, torrential rains briefly grounded helicopters and slowed down the movement of relief trucks. Thousands are likely to spend another night in the cold with little hope of shelter. Medicines and food are being brought in to areas of northern Pakistan. On Wednesday morning, six huge trucks and three large vans belonging to Pakistan's largest private trust, the Edhi Foundation, arrived in Muzaffarabad laden with relief supplies. The pace of the rescue work has come down, as hopes are receding about the surfacing of more survivors from the rubble and debris. Officials in Pakistan estimate that the quake, measuring between 7.4 and 7.6 on the open ended Richter Scale, might have claimed up to 40,000 lives, though Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has pegged the figure at around 23,000. India's paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) also confirmed that relief work on the Indian side of Kashmir has also been hampered due to fresh landslides triggered by heavy rainfall in the valley.

     The death toll in India is an estimated 1300 people, including 50 Indian Army soldiers, most of whom were posted at bunkers along the Line of Control (LoC). The BSF is engaged in a mammoth relief and rescue operation in the Kashmir Valley along with other defence forces. The relief activity is being concentrated on Tangdhar, one of the worst hit areas of the state. The town is located 150 kilometres from Srinagar and 50 kilometres from Muzaffarabad. K.Srinivasan, Deputy Inspector General of BSF, told reporters on Tuesday that bad weather conditions were hampering relief work. "We are fighting against entire weather conditions. You can see that the roads leading to posts are all blocked as a result we are unable to send them to the posts and affected villages as there are heavy landslides. We are sending all the relief material through air only. We are hopeful that once the roads are cleared we will be to step up our relief and rescue work," he said after the fresh batch of villagers were rescued from Tangdhar. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already pledged 111 million dollars to rebuild the lives of thousands of people in Jammu and Kashmir, declaring it "a national calamity". The the total package is almost 145 million dollars.

     The United Nations has launched an emergency appeal for 272 million dollars to help the victims. The appeal aims to cover priority needs for the next six months, including winter shelter equipment, food, medicines and transport. Some people in remote parts of Pakistan and India have received no aid, and there is growing anger among survivors. In ruined towns and villages, people have been picking over rubble in the search for loved ones - but there is little hope of finding anyone alive. In the town of Balakot, which was flattened by the quake, thousands of people have been left homeless and have little or no shelter from the rain. With road links severed, rescue teams have still not reached more than 12,000 people living in mountain villages in Indian- administered Kashmir.