ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: A strong earthquake, said to be most powerful to hit the region in 100 years, is feared to have killed and injured thousands of people and caused massive destruction in northern Pakistan on Saturday, mainly in areas situated close to its epicentre which lay some 95 kilometres northeast of Islamabad in Kashmir.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz disclosed that the quake also killed some 200 army troops deployed in Azad Kashmir, including six officers, and injured another 300.

Earlier he had said after an aerial view of the damage the quake caused in Islamabad that it would take time to know the full extent of the death and destruction.

Met department chief Dr Qamaruz Zaman said the earthquake, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale, was the severest to hit the region in 100 years. It proved so destructive because it was shallow — about 10 kilometres deep, he said.

Even one of the some 40 aftershocks that his department’s seismographs registered within six hours of the initial massive quake that hit at 8:52am measured 6.2. A tremor of intensity of 6 is rated as a major earthquake. However, only about 18 of the aftershocks were perceptible to the people.

The Kashmir-centred earthquake jolted areas as far away as Kabul in the west and Delhi, some 600 kilometres in the east.

Television footage from Muzaffarabad, one of the worst hit places, gave some inkling of the devastation it caused. PTV showed buildings collapsed, roads split open and blocked by landslides, water pipes broken and power lines and transformers flung down.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf told PTV after visiting a 10- storey apartment building that collapsed like an accordion in Islamabad that the catastrophe “is a testing time for me, the prime minister, the government and the nation”. He was confident that the challenge would be met.

Other apartment buildings in the vicinity were evacuated as a precautionary measure.

As the president, followed by the prime minister and Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao, came down the mountain of debris of the collapsed building an aftershock shook the site and the crowd of onlookers ran helter-skelter.

Islamabad police chief Iftikhar Ahmed told Dawn that eight bodies and 74 residents had been retrieved by 7:30pm from the collapsed building which housed foreign nationals also.

An Egyptian diplomat was killed as he, like several other residents, jumped out of the building when the top floors started crashing down.

Some United Nations military observers monitoring the Line of Control in Kashmir and Japanese and Italian nationals were also believed to be trapped in the collapsed structure.

A team of UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance is reaching Islamabad on Sunday from Geneva to assess the situation and the Japanese ambassador said Tokyo is rushing rescue equipment.

China is also sending a 50-member search and rescue team to assist in the rescue operations in quake-affected areas.

France and Germany have also offered assistance.

Meanwhile, the prime minister set up a Disaster Relief Cell in his secretariat and allocated Rs1 billion for the relief work.

The devastating earthquake shocked the nation and brought the best in it as people rose up to the occasion participating in the relief work.

In Islamabad many residents were still asleep after taking Sehri when the quake jolted them out of their beds. Those already up and about to go for their work places rushed out of their houses into the open as the earth shook violently.

Experts’ calls over TV channels to remain cautious as the aftershocks could continue for next 48 hours unnerved them even more.

PTV cameras perhaps caught the most vivid pictures of human reaction to the quake at the exact moment it hit. An official being interviewed in a talk show on India’s controversial Baglihar dam suddenly stopped mid way as everything in the PTV studio started shaking.

“It is an earthquake - a strong one,” said the official and he and the two presenters of the show started praying. “Allah-o- Akbar, Allah-o-Akbar”, they said and recited the Kalima.

Communications systems disrupted by the quake compounded the anxiety of people who could not telephone their relatives in the worst affected areas in Azad Kashmir and northern Pakistan.

Telephone lines still working were clogged by anxious callers.

Army spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told journalists that troops deployed in Azad Kashmir and northern areas were alerted to rush with relief and rescue work but were hindered by the destruction of roads and infrastructures in the quake-hit areas.

Ordinary people came in their thousands to help in the relief effort. Volunteers answered to the calls for blood donations and others brought food, water and other goods for the victims of the quake.

Government also quickly lined up medical facilities for the injured and closed out-patient services in some hospitals to cope with the emergency.

The Senate which was in session was adjourned sine die at the request of both the opposition and the government party to allow the senators to participate in relief work.

TROOPS CALLED OUT: Troops were called out in all affected area including Islamabad to initiate rescue operation and remove those who were trapped in collapsed structures.

Although, the area hit by Saturday’s quake has traditionally been an active earthquake area, but quite recently it has been fairly dormant.

Seismic experts say the Saturday quake was caused by the same mechanism that created recent tsunami. It is being described as a “thrust” earthquake caused by friction between the Indian subcontinent as it pushed against Asian continent in the Himalayas.

About 11 people, including three foreigners, were killed under collapsing buildings in the federal capital and neighbouring Rawalpindi. But the hardest-hit areas appeared to be Kashmir and NWFP where several villages were buried in landslides or massively damaged.

The quake that continued for about couple of minutes was followed by a series of aftershocks, some as strong as more than six in magnitude.

The only comparable earthquake to have hit any part of Pakistan was in 1935 when pre-partition Quetta was flattened by an earthquake measuring 7.5.

Talking to reporters at site of collapsed high rise residential building in Islamabad, President Musharraf said the earthquake was a testing time for the country and expressed the belief that the nation would come up to the challenge.

“It is a challenging time for the nation and I urge the people to face this calamity with courage,” the president said.

The president said the government were pursuing an affective strategy to tackle the situation. He said Pakistan Air Force and Army Aviation were already using C-130 aircraft and ten MI-17 helicopters and were providing relief goods and casualties were being evacuated from the affected areas.

President Musharraf said the authorities reached promptly and the rescue operations had started immediately. The army, police, CDA and other volunteers were here for the rescue, he added. He said all the agencies were coordinating in providing relief and all resources would be made available for the rescue work.

He said President’s Relief Fund would be established to generate funds for the help of affected people.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz earlier had an aerial view of the collapsed building and a special Disaster Relief Cell has been set up at the PM House to deal with the situation.

The prime minister ordered immediate relief, rescue and evacuation operation for the people trapped in collapsed buildings due to the severe earthquake that jolted the country.

Prime Minister Aziz personally directed the provincial governments and the AJK government to fully mobilise the civil and military machinery to participate in the relief operations.

He directed the Cabinet Division’s Relief Cell to rush to the site of collapsed Margalla Towers in Islamabad and the first helicopter was on the site within seven minutes of the collapse.

Director-General, Inter Services Public Relations, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told a US TV channel that the number of casualties in the country were over 700.

Reports of damage were received from Rawlakot, Bagh and other areas of Azad Kashmir.

Similarly, he said, reports of losses were received from Pattan in the Northern areas.

He said the Engineers Battalion of Frontier Works Organization, already present in the Pattan area, had started the relief and rescue activities.

The Army helicopters have been flown to various places which are well-equipped to perform relief activities, he said. These helicopters are also carrying medical teams and medicines to provide prompt treatment to the injured, he said.

“A team of Japanese experts with necessary equipment will arrive Pakistan within the next 24 hours to carry out rescue operation in the affected areas,” Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said. Japanese Ambassador Nobuaki Tanaka also visited the site of collapsed Margalla Towers in Islamabad to have first hand information about the casualties and the amount of damage.

The NWFP government has declared emergency in the quake-hit areas and education institutions have been closed. Troops have been put on alert in Peshawar and other military basis to assist 0 - the local authorities. The Met office said that more than 60 aftershocks were recorded by the seismic centre till the filing of this report and more were expected.

Casualties have been reported from the adjacent Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the details of which are being awaited.
 

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