Pakistani Kashmir suffers worst effects of earthquake
Aftershocks continued throughout the day and were felt as far away as Bangladesh.
The quake visited its worst effects on the isolated towns and villages of Pakistani Kashmir and adjacent areas, where the dead included 250 girls, who were crushed when their school in the Mansehra district collapsed, and 200 army soldiers on duty, officials said. Entire villages were reportedly destroyed, and landslides blocked major roads.
The damage was as random as it was widespread. In the Pakistani capital, about 60 miles south of the epicentre, the temblor caused the collapse of a 10-storey luxury high-rise but largely spared the rest of the city, despite shaking so violent that water sloshed over the edges of hotel swimming pools.
At the wrecked building, by nightfall rescuers wielding sledgehammers alongside backhoes, cranes and other heavy equipment worked frantically beneath the glare of floodlights to free scores of people believed still trapped in layers of twisted steel and concrete.
Mohammed Anwar, the top government official in Pakistani Kashmir, and others there said on Pakistan’s Aaj television network that few homes in Muzzafarabad, the capital of the area, had escaped damage, and schools, hospitals and other government buildings had collapsed. A military hospital in the garrison town of Rawalakot, also in Pakistani Kashmir, was reported destroyed.
Aid organisations warned that relief efforts could be hampered by winter conditions that will soon prevail at the higher elevations of Kashmir. “Winterised tents and blankets will be urgently needed,” Oxfam humanitarian response co-ordinator Raphael Sindaye told reporters after a meeting of aid agencies in Islamabad.
India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, offered his country’s help.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered American assistance to both countries. “At this difficult time, the United States stands with its friends in Pakistan and India, just as they stood with us and offered assistance after hurricane Katrina.”
The death toll may have been compounded by the calendar. This week marked the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of prayer and fasting. As a result, many Pakistanis were asleep when the earthquake struck, having risen before dawn to pray and have a light meal in preparation for the day-long fast, then gone back to bed.
