f5 wrote:its one Catastrophie after another.i don't wanna sound mean but i hope the epicenter was under bin laden's cave
I do to...
BREAKING NEWS - 7.6 magnitude earthquake Northern Pakistan
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Matt-hurricanewatcher
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Matt-hurricanewatcher
Pakistan earthquake - Balakot, Bagh razed (100,000 feared dead in two cities)
The Nation (Pakistan) ^ | October 11, 2005 | Absar Alam
BALAKOT - The towns of Balakot in Hazara and Bagh in Azad Kashmir were razed to ground completely and more than 100,000 people are feared dead in these two cities only.
The stench of death hangs over the weaving rows of rubble that was once Balakot, a thriving tourist town, a must stopover for cheerful visitors enroute to Kaghan.
Saturday's massive quake has turned the historic town of Syed Ahmed Shah's martyrdom into a massive graveyard sprawling on both sides of the river Kunhar while the survivors with broken limbs and hearts mourn their loved ones who perished in thousands in Saturday's earthquake.
With estimates of 60,000 or above deaths in this town alone, there is hardly a family that has not lost several of its members. At least 1,000 students buried under the rubble of their school buildings have yet to be recovered.
Our correspondent from Bagh said about 70,000 people are feared dead there as the town has been completely destroyed. Still trapped in the debris are hundreds of school children and residents.
All the communication and transport links of areas beyond Balakot have broken with the outside world and the inhabitants are virtually living in stone age under the open sky. There is no electricity, no telephone line working, no clean water, no food, no medical equipment to save lives, no medicines, no tents and no blankets.
'One, two, three, four' fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. And then I stopped counting the bodies lying by the roadside some barely covered with old plastic sheets, rotten piece of clothes, or nothing.
The afternoon's successful rescue of Eman, a nine-year-old girl who was trapped under the debris along with her 370 schoolmates 58 hours ago, was the only good news that gave volunteers hope to continue their struggle with hammers and shovels.
'There is still a teacher and her class students alive under the rubble but we are unable to retrieve them,' a bearded volunteer, who was also involved in the recovery of Eman, said. Later, these 40 students were retrieved alive. Eman was one of those few students of Shaheen International School and College of Commerce and Information Technology who were retrieved alive.
But others were not as lucky. Muhammad Rafaqat, a 9th Grader, was missing too. His school satchel was recovered lying with a mound of bags.
I opened a copy of his homework. A boarder, Rafaqat lived in Ghazali Hostel. On a page he had written the daily menu that was served at breakfast, lunch and dinner at his hostel. On Saturday, he had taken Chai Paratha for breakfast (or Sehri) and would have taken Chawal Raita for dinner (or Iftar). But that night never came. On Monday afternoon when I was going through the pages of his copy, he was somewhere deep under the debris.
Lying near the school debris were books, satchels, shoes, crayons, copies, and pencils. A torn page of book 'Me any My computer' flapped in the air near a blood-stained maroon jacket.
Besides me, on top of a caved roof, which once was home of a family, sat Dr Farid watching the ongoing rescue operation below. 'I am waiting for the body of my third son,' Farid said in a weirdly cold tone when I asked what he was doing here.
Looking at my startled reaction, Farid, who is also Balakot correspondent for a daily Urdu newspaper, gave me a bitter smile and said; 'We are know use to it. I wept when I buried 7-year old Saad and 9-year old Ammad. How much can I grieve' Everyone is grieving around here. Tears have stopped filling our eyes.' He, his wife and one daughter miraculously survived as they moved out of their home within seconds.
In Government High School Balakot, there were 900 students, in Government Degree College for Girls there were 350, and in International Islamia Model School there were 600 kids on Saturday. From Government Degree College Hassa, near Balakot, 150 bodies were retrieved.
'I am waiting for the body of ninth member of our family,' Iddi Amin, who works for an Islamabad-based marketing agency Enhancers Private, said. His sister, Al-Kinza, 23, was a teacher of Playgroup at the Shaheen School and was buried alive with the students and other teachers. 'I lost my father, my sister, her husband, my uncle, his wife, two sons of my elder uncle, one daughter-in-law, and daughter of my elder uncle,' Amin said. He said 16 members of his in-laws family also perished.
'Last night I was digging the grave to bury one of my neighbourhood friend. Exhausted I asked an acquaintance to help me dig the grave. He refused saying 'why should I push the shovel' I have lost too many of my loved-ones and have to bury them too.'
Yet, no official rescue team arrived to help rescue the survivors, treat injured, bury the dead, provide food, water, medicines, tents, and to control traffic.
Except Madni Market near the bridge and three signal towers erected by Mobilink, WLL, and Telenor, the bazar starting from the Shell patrol pump on Kaghan Road (the first milestone that you notice while entering Balakot) to Park Hotel built across the Kunhar, all shops, hotels, shopping malls, cafes, and houses on two kilometer stretch have been flattened completely.
Each of this concrete and steel structure turned into graveyard for those who could not run on to the streets within seconds after the deadly quake struck them. A huge number of Balakot residents are buried under the debris, no rescue effort has yet started and hope for survivors is diminishing.
In front of Jamia Masjid-I-Shuhda, near new bridge, a body was lying under a truck loaded with potatoes that had been flung upside down by the earthquake into what once would be Foto King Colour Lab and Studio. Hundreds of photo prints, potatoes, onions, pickle, vegetable oil, engine oil and blood oozing from bodies mixed with dust and charcoal all around.
Just few yards away, the earthquake that wreaked cracks in the ground at a number of places, had tossed two jeeps onto the riverbed. No one is sure of the passengers. Near Madni market, the lonely building in Balakot that survived the earthquake, another truck was thrown into a shop, two pick up vans nearby were lying on their side.
Around the Mazar of Syed Ahmed Shaheed, not a single structure is standing. And yet, thieves have emptied all ornaments from a jewelers destroyed shop in front of Syed Ahmed's Mazar. By his grave were lying dead bodies in rows. These were left there in the open by the local rescuers who came in thousands from the adjoining areas to recover and bury the dead.
The huge Barelvi Jamia Masjid on the right bank of the river Kunhar near the old suspension bridge also collapsed. Now the worshippers were using the roof of the destroyed mosque to say their prayers. For ablution and drinking they were using the muddy river water that has been polluted after the earthquake.
The whole area is littered with concrete, electric wires, shoes, blood-soaked clothes, packets of yogurt, milk, spices, chillies, salt, grains, pulses, straw mats, iron rods, bricks, mud, household items, and plastic toys. It's a mess that will take years, or perhaps decades, to clean up but the scars that this tragedy has left on the minds of people will never go.
'The rescue operation and the mobilisation of the military has been very slow,' Lt General (Retd) Salahuddin Tirmazi told The Nation while sympathizing with enraged survivors who were abusing the government.
'Each of the 12 Balakot union councils, there are 15,000 to 20,000 registered voters and then they have kids and the people who have not registered themselves as voters. About 80 percent of them are unaccounted for,' Tirmazi, who is a native of Kaghan and is an active politician now, said.
He, however, said the mobilisation of military was not an easy task as everybody would be busy in their routine work such as few units were busy in Wana and others were called in from Gujranawala.
'No one knows how many people are dead in the valleys where no one can reach,' Tirmazi said.
Numerous interviews with survivors and the families members of the dead, and a glance from the top over Balakot Valley lying on both sides of Kunhar confirms what Tirmazi said.
Comprising 12 union councils, Balakot and Karlot, make what Balakot city is today. Both these areas have been totally razed to the ground. Four-storey buildings, post office, police station, civil hospital, Nadra office, offices of travel agents, PCOs, mosques, petrol pumps, and other government departments have reduced to a flattened bed of rocks.
A five-member French rescue team arrived in a helicopter Monday afternoon to help the civilian volunteers who have been recovering bodies, and alive victims from the rubble of schools, shops and residences.
A Japanese team has also set up its camp in Balakot but has not yet started its operation. The first Pakistani army convoy arrived in the outskirts of Balakot late afternoon and was busy setting up its camp. With evening falling fast, they are unlikely to launch any operation before Tuesday.
The students of University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar were the first who arrived in Balakot on Saturday afternoon with medicine, food, and water. They were joined by the students of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Technology.
'When we arrived there was no one here, and there was no voice. What we saw were dead bodies and what we heard were the wailing of family members who lost their loved ones,' said Bilal Riaz of GIK.
Roads are blocked with huge landslides. No one can go beyond Balakot. The road from Mansehra to Balakot opened on Monday morning but the massive rescue operation launched by the civilians using their own vehicles resulted into worst traffic jams and passengers; victims fleeing Balakot and adjoining areas and the rescue workers were stranded for hours despite the presence of military which, most of the time, stayed away from handling the traffic.
The volunteers who came from nearby districts did a commendable job by recovering and burying dozens of bodies. The supplies of food items, medicines, blankets, warm clothes and other edibles came from Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and even from Nasirabad Balochistan.
5m left homeless
ISLAMABAD (Agencies) - As many as five million people were left homeless and were now living in the open and freezing temperatures since the quake, army spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told CNN on Monday. Sultan said rescue and recovery teams and aid from many countries were on their way 'to the most affected areas'. He said that a number of foreign rescue teams have been despatched to different quake-hit areas.
Meanwhile, during a media briefing, he said the teams from friendly countries would be carrying out relief and rescue operations. He said a team from France was carrying necessary equipment and a field hospital has been deployed in Rawlakot. Another team from Spain carrying a mobile hospital of 240 beds has been deployed in Bagh. Teams from Turkey, Germany, and UK carrying mobile hospitals have been despatched to Muzaffarabad. Teams of Rescuers from UAE, Jordan, China, and Japan along with sniffer dogs have been deployed in Balaokot, Mansehra and Batgram.
He said that the rescue and relief operations were being carried out at a fast pace.
Answering a question, he said efforts were being made to evaluate the devastation with the help of satellite images from the quake-battered parts.
The Nation (Pakistan) ^ | October 11, 2005 | Absar Alam
BALAKOT - The towns of Balakot in Hazara and Bagh in Azad Kashmir were razed to ground completely and more than 100,000 people are feared dead in these two cities only.
The stench of death hangs over the weaving rows of rubble that was once Balakot, a thriving tourist town, a must stopover for cheerful visitors enroute to Kaghan.
Saturday's massive quake has turned the historic town of Syed Ahmed Shah's martyrdom into a massive graveyard sprawling on both sides of the river Kunhar while the survivors with broken limbs and hearts mourn their loved ones who perished in thousands in Saturday's earthquake.
With estimates of 60,000 or above deaths in this town alone, there is hardly a family that has not lost several of its members. At least 1,000 students buried under the rubble of their school buildings have yet to be recovered.
Our correspondent from Bagh said about 70,000 people are feared dead there as the town has been completely destroyed. Still trapped in the debris are hundreds of school children and residents.
All the communication and transport links of areas beyond Balakot have broken with the outside world and the inhabitants are virtually living in stone age under the open sky. There is no electricity, no telephone line working, no clean water, no food, no medical equipment to save lives, no medicines, no tents and no blankets.
'One, two, three, four' fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. And then I stopped counting the bodies lying by the roadside some barely covered with old plastic sheets, rotten piece of clothes, or nothing.
The afternoon's successful rescue of Eman, a nine-year-old girl who was trapped under the debris along with her 370 schoolmates 58 hours ago, was the only good news that gave volunteers hope to continue their struggle with hammers and shovels.
'There is still a teacher and her class students alive under the rubble but we are unable to retrieve them,' a bearded volunteer, who was also involved in the recovery of Eman, said. Later, these 40 students were retrieved alive. Eman was one of those few students of Shaheen International School and College of Commerce and Information Technology who were retrieved alive.
But others were not as lucky. Muhammad Rafaqat, a 9th Grader, was missing too. His school satchel was recovered lying with a mound of bags.
I opened a copy of his homework. A boarder, Rafaqat lived in Ghazali Hostel. On a page he had written the daily menu that was served at breakfast, lunch and dinner at his hostel. On Saturday, he had taken Chai Paratha for breakfast (or Sehri) and would have taken Chawal Raita for dinner (or Iftar). But that night never came. On Monday afternoon when I was going through the pages of his copy, he was somewhere deep under the debris.
Lying near the school debris were books, satchels, shoes, crayons, copies, and pencils. A torn page of book 'Me any My computer' flapped in the air near a blood-stained maroon jacket.
Besides me, on top of a caved roof, which once was home of a family, sat Dr Farid watching the ongoing rescue operation below. 'I am waiting for the body of my third son,' Farid said in a weirdly cold tone when I asked what he was doing here.
Looking at my startled reaction, Farid, who is also Balakot correspondent for a daily Urdu newspaper, gave me a bitter smile and said; 'We are know use to it. I wept when I buried 7-year old Saad and 9-year old Ammad. How much can I grieve' Everyone is grieving around here. Tears have stopped filling our eyes.' He, his wife and one daughter miraculously survived as they moved out of their home within seconds.
In Government High School Balakot, there were 900 students, in Government Degree College for Girls there were 350, and in International Islamia Model School there were 600 kids on Saturday. From Government Degree College Hassa, near Balakot, 150 bodies were retrieved.
'I am waiting for the body of ninth member of our family,' Iddi Amin, who works for an Islamabad-based marketing agency Enhancers Private, said. His sister, Al-Kinza, 23, was a teacher of Playgroup at the Shaheen School and was buried alive with the students and other teachers. 'I lost my father, my sister, her husband, my uncle, his wife, two sons of my elder uncle, one daughter-in-law, and daughter of my elder uncle,' Amin said. He said 16 members of his in-laws family also perished.
'Last night I was digging the grave to bury one of my neighbourhood friend. Exhausted I asked an acquaintance to help me dig the grave. He refused saying 'why should I push the shovel' I have lost too many of my loved-ones and have to bury them too.'
Yet, no official rescue team arrived to help rescue the survivors, treat injured, bury the dead, provide food, water, medicines, tents, and to control traffic.
Except Madni Market near the bridge and three signal towers erected by Mobilink, WLL, and Telenor, the bazar starting from the Shell patrol pump on Kaghan Road (the first milestone that you notice while entering Balakot) to Park Hotel built across the Kunhar, all shops, hotels, shopping malls, cafes, and houses on two kilometer stretch have been flattened completely.
Each of this concrete and steel structure turned into graveyard for those who could not run on to the streets within seconds after the deadly quake struck them. A huge number of Balakot residents are buried under the debris, no rescue effort has yet started and hope for survivors is diminishing.
In front of Jamia Masjid-I-Shuhda, near new bridge, a body was lying under a truck loaded with potatoes that had been flung upside down by the earthquake into what once would be Foto King Colour Lab and Studio. Hundreds of photo prints, potatoes, onions, pickle, vegetable oil, engine oil and blood oozing from bodies mixed with dust and charcoal all around.
Just few yards away, the earthquake that wreaked cracks in the ground at a number of places, had tossed two jeeps onto the riverbed. No one is sure of the passengers. Near Madni market, the lonely building in Balakot that survived the earthquake, another truck was thrown into a shop, two pick up vans nearby were lying on their side.
Around the Mazar of Syed Ahmed Shaheed, not a single structure is standing. And yet, thieves have emptied all ornaments from a jewelers destroyed shop in front of Syed Ahmed's Mazar. By his grave were lying dead bodies in rows. These were left there in the open by the local rescuers who came in thousands from the adjoining areas to recover and bury the dead.
The huge Barelvi Jamia Masjid on the right bank of the river Kunhar near the old suspension bridge also collapsed. Now the worshippers were using the roof of the destroyed mosque to say their prayers. For ablution and drinking they were using the muddy river water that has been polluted after the earthquake.
The whole area is littered with concrete, electric wires, shoes, blood-soaked clothes, packets of yogurt, milk, spices, chillies, salt, grains, pulses, straw mats, iron rods, bricks, mud, household items, and plastic toys. It's a mess that will take years, or perhaps decades, to clean up but the scars that this tragedy has left on the minds of people will never go.
'The rescue operation and the mobilisation of the military has been very slow,' Lt General (Retd) Salahuddin Tirmazi told The Nation while sympathizing with enraged survivors who were abusing the government.
'Each of the 12 Balakot union councils, there are 15,000 to 20,000 registered voters and then they have kids and the people who have not registered themselves as voters. About 80 percent of them are unaccounted for,' Tirmazi, who is a native of Kaghan and is an active politician now, said.
He, however, said the mobilisation of military was not an easy task as everybody would be busy in their routine work such as few units were busy in Wana and others were called in from Gujranawala.
'No one knows how many people are dead in the valleys where no one can reach,' Tirmazi said.
Numerous interviews with survivors and the families members of the dead, and a glance from the top over Balakot Valley lying on both sides of Kunhar confirms what Tirmazi said.
Comprising 12 union councils, Balakot and Karlot, make what Balakot city is today. Both these areas have been totally razed to the ground. Four-storey buildings, post office, police station, civil hospital, Nadra office, offices of travel agents, PCOs, mosques, petrol pumps, and other government departments have reduced to a flattened bed of rocks.
A five-member French rescue team arrived in a helicopter Monday afternoon to help the civilian volunteers who have been recovering bodies, and alive victims from the rubble of schools, shops and residences.
A Japanese team has also set up its camp in Balakot but has not yet started its operation. The first Pakistani army convoy arrived in the outskirts of Balakot late afternoon and was busy setting up its camp. With evening falling fast, they are unlikely to launch any operation before Tuesday.
The students of University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar were the first who arrived in Balakot on Saturday afternoon with medicine, food, and water. They were joined by the students of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Technology.
'When we arrived there was no one here, and there was no voice. What we saw were dead bodies and what we heard were the wailing of family members who lost their loved ones,' said Bilal Riaz of GIK.
Roads are blocked with huge landslides. No one can go beyond Balakot. The road from Mansehra to Balakot opened on Monday morning but the massive rescue operation launched by the civilians using their own vehicles resulted into worst traffic jams and passengers; victims fleeing Balakot and adjoining areas and the rescue workers were stranded for hours despite the presence of military which, most of the time, stayed away from handling the traffic.
The volunteers who came from nearby districts did a commendable job by recovering and burying dozens of bodies. The supplies of food items, medicines, blankets, warm clothes and other edibles came from Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and even from Nasirabad Balochistan.
5m left homeless
ISLAMABAD (Agencies) - As many as five million people were left homeless and were now living in the open and freezing temperatures since the quake, army spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told CNN on Monday. Sultan said rescue and recovery teams and aid from many countries were on their way 'to the most affected areas'. He said that a number of foreign rescue teams have been despatched to different quake-hit areas.
Meanwhile, during a media briefing, he said the teams from friendly countries would be carrying out relief and rescue operations. He said a team from France was carrying necessary equipment and a field hospital has been deployed in Rawlakot. Another team from Spain carrying a mobile hospital of 240 beds has been deployed in Bagh. Teams from Turkey, Germany, and UK carrying mobile hospitals have been despatched to Muzaffarabad. Teams of Rescuers from UAE, Jordan, China, and Japan along with sniffer dogs have been deployed in Balaokot, Mansehra and Batgram.
He said that the rescue and relief operations were being carried out at a fast pace.
Answering a question, he said efforts were being made to evaluate the devastation with the help of satellite images from the quake-battered parts.
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Matt-hurricanewatcher
Pakistan earthquake - Death toll may cross 200,000
The Nation (Pakistan) ^ | October 11, 2005
ISLAMABAD - As more reports of cities and villages being totally reduced to rubble in NWFP and AJK pour in, the confirmed death toll currently put at 20,000 by the government is likely to go beyond 200,000.
According to estimates the death toll in Hazara division alone may rise close to 100,000. This includes the death of 60,000 or more in Balakot, 1,000 in Battagram, and hundreds more in Mansehra, and Abbottabad districts.
Dozens of villages have turned into mounds of earth; the number of their dead will take a long time coming.
The situation in Azad Kashmir is horrifying, with dozens of towns, villages, and hamlets turned into huge graveyards. Muzaffarabad alone is feared to account for more than 20,000 dead.
The beautiful city of Bagh (Garden) in Azad Kashmir has been wiped out completely. It is feared that more than 70,000 are dead in that unfortunate city.
The death toll in areas beyond Balakot and Karlot has not been confirmed yet as there is no access to Kaghan Valley by road from Balakot.
According to some estimates thousands of casualties are expected in these areas too once a road link is established and rescuers can go in. The relief efforts have been marred by the lack of heavy machinery and landslides on the roads that have severed the affected areas from the entire country.
As the hundreds of critically injured succumb to their injured, the death toll is rising in hospitals and relief camps.
News of heavy loss of life from far flung areas of remote Kohistan has also started coming in.
It will take another week or so at the very least before some estimations of the loss of life there could be determined.
The Nation (Pakistan) ^ | October 11, 2005
ISLAMABAD - As more reports of cities and villages being totally reduced to rubble in NWFP and AJK pour in, the confirmed death toll currently put at 20,000 by the government is likely to go beyond 200,000.
According to estimates the death toll in Hazara division alone may rise close to 100,000. This includes the death of 60,000 or more in Balakot, 1,000 in Battagram, and hundreds more in Mansehra, and Abbottabad districts.
Dozens of villages have turned into mounds of earth; the number of their dead will take a long time coming.
The situation in Azad Kashmir is horrifying, with dozens of towns, villages, and hamlets turned into huge graveyards. Muzaffarabad alone is feared to account for more than 20,000 dead.
The beautiful city of Bagh (Garden) in Azad Kashmir has been wiped out completely. It is feared that more than 70,000 are dead in that unfortunate city.
The death toll in areas beyond Balakot and Karlot has not been confirmed yet as there is no access to Kaghan Valley by road from Balakot.
According to some estimates thousands of casualties are expected in these areas too once a road link is established and rescuers can go in. The relief efforts have been marred by the lack of heavy machinery and landslides on the roads that have severed the affected areas from the entire country.
As the hundreds of critically injured succumb to their injured, the death toll is rising in hospitals and relief camps.
News of heavy loss of life from far flung areas of remote Kohistan has also started coming in.
It will take another week or so at the very least before some estimations of the loss of life there could be determined.
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AussieMark
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Death Toll in Asian Quake Soars to 79,000
BALAKOT, Pakistan - The death toll soared to 79,000 Wednesday from South Asia's mammoth earthquake, following a survey of one of the two hardest-hit Pakistani regions — making it one of the deadliest quakes in modern times.
More aftershocks rattled the region, sending up huge clouds of dust from steep-sided mountain valleys where villages lie in pieces. During a helicopter tour of the ruins, the president promised new, quake-ready houses for the homeless.
In remote mountains, a steady flow of injured villagers continued to seek medical attention. Many had infected wounds, untreated since the Oct. 8 temblor, and had to rely on relatives to carry them for hours on foot to makeshift clinics.
More than 60 helicopters were dropping relief supplies, and mule trains were pushing into areas where no helicopters can land.
"Many people out there, we are not going to get to in time," said Rob Holden, the U.N. disaster coordinator in Pakistan's part of Kashmir. "Some people who have injuries don't have a chance of survival."
Eleven days after the 7.6-magnitude quake, the full scale of the disaster is becoming apparent. A helicopter trip through the badly hit Neelum and Kaghan Valleys showed flattened homes on mountainsides and roads blocked by boulders, trees and earth. Moving only on foot, people were fashioning new pathways over landslides.
The central government updated its death toll to 47,700, but regional authorities gave much higher figures, based on information trickling in from outlying areas and as more bodies were pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings.
Since the early days of the disaster, the central government death tally has lagged behind that of local authorities, although federal officials have said privately they expect the toll to rise dramatically.
Citing reports from local authorities and hospital officials, the government of North West Frontier Province said 37,958 people had died there and the toll was likely to rise. The prime minister in Pakistani-held Kashmir said at least 40,000 people died in that neighboring region. India has reported 1,360 deaths in the part of Kashmir that it controls.
Those tallies would push the death toll to 79,318 from the quake.
That figure was in line with an estimate Wednesday from a senior army official that 75,000 to 80,000 people had died across Pakistan. The official did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to comment on the death toll.
Aid workers fear casualties could rise even further as communities without adequate food, shelter or health care will soon face the harsh Himalayan winter. Snow has already begun to fall in high mountains, and some villages face subfreezing temperatures at night.
However, the death toll in Pakistan is unlikely to come close to December's magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami that killed more than 176,000 people — most of them in Indonesia — or a magnitude 8.2 temblor that killed at least 240,000 in Tangshan, China, in 1976.
Hundreds of aftershocks are still rattling the South Asian quake zone, frightening the many homeless who are camping by ruined homes. A 5.8-magnitude tremor struck on Wednesday morning, near the epicenter of the main quake. Less than an hour later, a second was felt that registered 5.6.
There were no reports of injury, but the aftershocks caused new landslides that briefly blocked at least one road and sent rubble coursing down eroded mountainsides.
On a tour near the quake-hit town of Balakot, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf promised to build quake-proof homes for the homeless — drawing applause from about 200 villagers at a tented settlement.
Carrying a swagger stick and wearing a baseball cap, Musharraf also said he would be willing to let Kashmiri civilians drive across the militarized border from India to help their brethren on the Pakistan side rebuild.
"If they want to assist in the reconstruction effort and in (distributing) relief goods, yes, I will allow it. ... We would like to encourage it," he said.
There's been no formal Indian response to the offer. It appears at least in part a diplomatic parry to India's previous offer of military helicopters for relief efforts. The nations have fought two wars over Kashmir, and Pakistan refuses to let Indian military personnel onto its side of the disputed frontier.
At Nanseri, a village four miles from the Line of Control in Kashmir, injured people were still emerging from their communities — making arduous journeys across towering mountains, with relatives carrying their loved ones on their backs or in wooden-and-twine beds.
Dr. Amjad Sarij Memon said his eight-man team of volunteer doctors from the southern city of Karachi had performed more than 500 operations in the past six days in tents in the village. He said they have had to carry out "numerous amputations" because of infected wounds.
Despite the growing influx of aid, the U.N. World Food Program has estimated a half-million survivors have yet to receive any. Pakistan's military, however, says all but about 5 percent of communities have been reached — although it does appear that many villages have received little aid.
In Beijing, top U.N. relief coordinator Jan Egeland urged China, which borders Pakistan, to contribute winterized tents. Pakistan says it urgently needs 150,000-200,000 tents. It now has about 30,000.
BALAKOT, Pakistan - The death toll soared to 79,000 Wednesday from South Asia's mammoth earthquake, following a survey of one of the two hardest-hit Pakistani regions — making it one of the deadliest quakes in modern times.
More aftershocks rattled the region, sending up huge clouds of dust from steep-sided mountain valleys where villages lie in pieces. During a helicopter tour of the ruins, the president promised new, quake-ready houses for the homeless.
In remote mountains, a steady flow of injured villagers continued to seek medical attention. Many had infected wounds, untreated since the Oct. 8 temblor, and had to rely on relatives to carry them for hours on foot to makeshift clinics.
More than 60 helicopters were dropping relief supplies, and mule trains were pushing into areas where no helicopters can land.
"Many people out there, we are not going to get to in time," said Rob Holden, the U.N. disaster coordinator in Pakistan's part of Kashmir. "Some people who have injuries don't have a chance of survival."
Eleven days after the 7.6-magnitude quake, the full scale of the disaster is becoming apparent. A helicopter trip through the badly hit Neelum and Kaghan Valleys showed flattened homes on mountainsides and roads blocked by boulders, trees and earth. Moving only on foot, people were fashioning new pathways over landslides.
The central government updated its death toll to 47,700, but regional authorities gave much higher figures, based on information trickling in from outlying areas and as more bodies were pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings.
Since the early days of the disaster, the central government death tally has lagged behind that of local authorities, although federal officials have said privately they expect the toll to rise dramatically.
Citing reports from local authorities and hospital officials, the government of North West Frontier Province said 37,958 people had died there and the toll was likely to rise. The prime minister in Pakistani-held Kashmir said at least 40,000 people died in that neighboring region. India has reported 1,360 deaths in the part of Kashmir that it controls.
Those tallies would push the death toll to 79,318 from the quake.
That figure was in line with an estimate Wednesday from a senior army official that 75,000 to 80,000 people had died across Pakistan. The official did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to comment on the death toll.
Aid workers fear casualties could rise even further as communities without adequate food, shelter or health care will soon face the harsh Himalayan winter. Snow has already begun to fall in high mountains, and some villages face subfreezing temperatures at night.
However, the death toll in Pakistan is unlikely to come close to December's magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami that killed more than 176,000 people — most of them in Indonesia — or a magnitude 8.2 temblor that killed at least 240,000 in Tangshan, China, in 1976.
Hundreds of aftershocks are still rattling the South Asian quake zone, frightening the many homeless who are camping by ruined homes. A 5.8-magnitude tremor struck on Wednesday morning, near the epicenter of the main quake. Less than an hour later, a second was felt that registered 5.6.
There were no reports of injury, but the aftershocks caused new landslides that briefly blocked at least one road and sent rubble coursing down eroded mountainsides.
On a tour near the quake-hit town of Balakot, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf promised to build quake-proof homes for the homeless — drawing applause from about 200 villagers at a tented settlement.
Carrying a swagger stick and wearing a baseball cap, Musharraf also said he would be willing to let Kashmiri civilians drive across the militarized border from India to help their brethren on the Pakistan side rebuild.
"If they want to assist in the reconstruction effort and in (distributing) relief goods, yes, I will allow it. ... We would like to encourage it," he said.
There's been no formal Indian response to the offer. It appears at least in part a diplomatic parry to India's previous offer of military helicopters for relief efforts. The nations have fought two wars over Kashmir, and Pakistan refuses to let Indian military personnel onto its side of the disputed frontier.
At Nanseri, a village four miles from the Line of Control in Kashmir, injured people were still emerging from their communities — making arduous journeys across towering mountains, with relatives carrying their loved ones on their backs or in wooden-and-twine beds.
Dr. Amjad Sarij Memon said his eight-man team of volunteer doctors from the southern city of Karachi had performed more than 500 operations in the past six days in tents in the village. He said they have had to carry out "numerous amputations" because of infected wounds.
Despite the growing influx of aid, the U.N. World Food Program has estimated a half-million survivors have yet to receive any. Pakistan's military, however, says all but about 5 percent of communities have been reached — although it does appear that many villages have received little aid.
In Beijing, top U.N. relief coordinator Jan Egeland urged China, which borders Pakistan, to contribute winterized tents. Pakistan says it urgently needs 150,000-200,000 tents. It now has about 30,000.
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