Peshawar, Pakistan – International relief efforts began to kick into gear late Monday as rescue teams arrived in earthquake-devastated towns of Pakistan’s mountainous north, where they witnessed scenes of utter devastation.
Barely a building still stood in the northwestern city of Balakot, which had a population of about 40,000 people. Victims whose bodies were recovered from the rubble were wrapped in white sheets and reburied in mass graves.
In Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir, hungry survivors jostled for food distributed by local government workers. And in Peshawar, a medical emergency was declared to expedite treatment of injured survivors trickling in from flattened rural villages.
The death toll from Saturday’s 7.6-magnitude quake continued to rise, and Pakistan’s interior ministry said late Monday that 20,745 had been killed and 47,000 injured nationwide. The United Nations, meanwhile, estimated that more than 2.5 million people had been rendered homeless as winter approaches in the rugged region.
Rescue teams from Japan, China, France, Hungary and the United Arab Emirates arrived in Balakot and outlying areas Monday and saw bodies still pinned under buildings; large numbers of survivors wandering streets without shelter, food or drinking water; and a dearth of emergency medical equipment.
Airlifts of supplies were expected this morning, when eight U.S. military helicopters, which arrived Monday in Islamabad from neighboring Afghanistan, were to ferry tents, medicine, blankets and additional equipment to hard-to-reach victims.
Anger appeared on the rise, however, as thousands of desperate survivors continued to await initial aid and heavy equipment to dig out the dead and dying.
In Muzaffarabad, looters reportedly clashed with shopkeepers. And in the Battagram district of the North West Frontier Province, residents said that a Japanese rescue team was preparing to launch body-recovery operations but that emergency supplies handed out by the Pakistani Army had proved painfully inadequate.
Resident Ihsanullah Dawar, reached by phone, said: “The affected population in Battagram district requires about 40,000 tents and blankets, while the army troops left only 40.”
President Pervez Musharraf appealed for public patience and calm.
“For heaven’s sake, bear with us,” he said. “There are certain limitations. We are trying our best.”
Foreign nations have thus far pledged $100 million in disaster relief to Pakistan, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told reporters in Islamabad. Half of that amount came in the form of an initial U.S. pledge for relief and reconstruction announced by the White House late Sunday.
Aziz said Balakot had been the hardest-hit town and that unknown numbers of people had died in numerous villages that relief teams had not yet reached.
Rehman Khan, a receptionist at the Fairyland Hotel in Naran, about 60 miles north of Balakot, said he saw countless destroyed villages Sunday as he walked to Balakot.
Landslides overturned a dozen trucks on the highway, with the drivers and assistants dead inside, he said.
Amir Hamza, a 2½-year-old- boy who suffered serious head injuries and a fractured arm, arrived at the neurology ward of the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar late Sunday. Amir’s mother, who has been in coma for the past three days, and his younger sister were admitted to the orthopedic ward.
Amir’s father, Maulvi Noorul Haq, said he had lost three daughters in the earthquake.
“I brought three bodies and buried them near Peshawar,” said Haq, who runs a seminary in Balakot, where the only hospital in the area collapsed. “People have no food and shelter. I have never seen any relief activities or ambulance service in the area to take out wounded. The main problem is how to retrieve bodies from the rubble and bury them.”
A doctor at Lady Reading, which was constructed by the British government before the partition of the subcontinent, said additional beds had been placed in wards to accommodate expected patients. He said most victims suffered head injuries or fractures.
Amid the catastrophe, there were glimmers of hope that it may give new impetus to efforts between Pakistan and India – which itself reported more than 865 earthquake deaths – to resolve their 47-year fight over the territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Syed Salahuddin, head of the Hizbul Moujahedeen, the largest militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, ordered his forces to cease fire, the Kashmir News Service reported. But the news was greeted with skepticism on both sides of the disputed territory, where any cease-fire was expected to be temporary.
