Quake left at least 328 dead, 300,000 affected SALEEM SHAHID

QUETTA, Sept 25: As desperate villagers in the districts hit by Tuesday’s powerful earthquake clawed through the wreckage of their homes and rescuers struggled to help thousands of people injured and left homeless, the Balochistan government said on Wednesday that about 300,000 people had been affected and 328 deaths confirmed in Awaran and Kech, but the toll might increase. However, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said it would use its own available resources for the rescue and relief, despite offers for help by the United Nations agencies, international donors and some countries. “We have enough resources to cope with the situation that has emerged after the earthquake in Awaran and Kech, although international donors and some friendly countries have also offered their cooperation,” NDMA Chairman Maj Gen Mohammad Saeed Aleem said. He said the NDMA’s relief goods stock in Karachi had been transported to the two districts and was being distributed among the affected people through the army, Frontier Corps and local administration. About 1,500 troops and army doctors and paramedics continued rescue and relief work along with FC personnel. The provincial government has released Rs180 million for purchase of relief goods and the rescue operation. Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch is likely to arrive here on Thursday after cutting short his visit to London. Chief Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad and the Commander of Southern Command, Lt Gen Nasir Khan Janjua, visited the affected areas and conducted an aerial survey to assess the damage. Rescue teams retrieved bodies from the debris of collapsed houses in various areas of Awaran and Kech, gave emergency first aid to the injured and took them to hospitals. They also provided tents, food, drinking water and medicines to the homeless. But rescue workers had yet to reach several remote villages where people were reported to be trapped under debris and thousands of women and children were among those sitting in the open after their homes had collapsed. The number of tents provided to the affected families turned out to be inadequate. The region faced a shortage of drinking water in hot weather because the water supply schemes had been damaged and pipelines broken by the quake. Reports reaching here said a number of bodies were yet to be retrieved from the rubble. “Five bodies of children have been taken out from and 10 others have been rescued alive from the debris of a mosque in Mashkay,” officials said. Many of the bodies were decomposed and a larger number of the injured had suffered fractures. While people held funerals and buried the bodies of their loved ones, there were reports that some of the victims were laid to rest in collective graves. Non-availability of water also caused difficulties in performing religious rites. Official sources said heavy destruction had taken place in Teerteej, Mangoli, Bedi, Labach, Pirandar, Jhao and Mashkay. “About 100 people died in the Teerteej area of Awaran district, the worst affected by the earthquake,” they said. The officials said 160 people had died in Awaran and 125 in Mashkay tehsil, while 43 deaths had been reported from Hoshab tehsil of Kech district. Awaran Deputy Commissioner Abdul Rashid Baloch said thousands of homes had been destroyed and some villages had cased to exist. The chief secretary told Dawn after visiting the area that teams of officials had been formed to assess the losses and the severely injured were being taken to the civil hospitals in Hub, Uthal and Karachi. Teams of the Pakistan Army and the health department were also providing emergency medical aid to the injured. Troops were sent from Karachi, Khuzdar and Quetta to Kech and Awaran for the rescue work. Five lady doctors from the army are also serving in the affected area. Six army helicopters are taking part in transporting relief goods from Quetta. Talking to reporters after arriving here on Wednesday, Maj Gen Aleem, the NDMA chairman, said the federal government and the army had given a free hand to the authority to avail all resources to carry out rescue and relief work in the affected districts of Balochistan. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has offered me a ‘blank cheque’ to cater for the needs of the people of Awaran and Kech affected by the earthquake,” he said. He said an aerial survey carried out in collaboration with Suparco and the air force had revealed that massive destruction had taken place. He said Khuzdar and Bela would be the hub for the relief activities.Additional Chief Secretary (Planning and Development) Aslam Shakir Baloch said rescue teams were facing some difficulties in reaching remote areas because roads had been badly damaged by the quake. Addressing a press conference, Balochistan government spokesman Mir Jan Mohammad Buledi said the army and the Frontier Corps had set up their camps in the affected areas and their personnel and doctors were carrying out rescue and relief work. The additional chief secretary said the government’s first priority was to rescue the survivors and a plan for compensation and rehabilitation would be prepared afterwards. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority’s Director General Hafiz Abdul Basit said 19 trucks carrying food, tents and other items had reached the affected areas and 10 more trucks were being sent. He said seven truckloads of relief goods had been provided by the NDMA. Health Secretary Abdul Sabboor said 30 doctors had reached the affected areas and 25 ambulances were taking the injured to hospitals in collaboration with the Edhi Ambulance Service. The provincial finance secretary said a meeting had been held on Wednesday with officials of UN agencies and international donors who had assured the Balochistan government of their cooperation.According to Reuters, a journalist described scenes of grief and chaos in Awaran villages, saying survivors were digging rows of graves and picking through the debris. In the village of Dalbedi, the earthquake flattened some 250 houses, an AFP photographer said. Their simple houses destroyed, the villagers used rags, old clothes, sheets and tree branches to shelter their families from the sun. Farmer Noor Ahmed, 45, said: “Even our food is now buried under mud and water from underground channels is now undrinkable because of excessive mud in it due to the earthquake.” Mr Buledi, the Balochistan government’s spokesman, said over 300,000 people had been affected across Awaran, Kech, Gwadar, Panjgur, Chaghai and Khuzdar districts. “We need more tents, more medicine and more food.” “We will receive satellite images tonight and then we will be in a position to analyse the magnitude of the losses,” the NDMA chief said. To the south, on the beach near Gwadar port, crowds of bewildered residents gathered to witness the rare phenomenon of an island that the quake sent shooting up out of the sea. A navy team reached the island on Wednesday.“There are stones and mud,” navy geologist Mohammed Danish said, warning residents not to try to visit the island. “Gases are still emitting.”But a number of people had already set foot on the island, said the deputy commissioner of Gwadar district, Tufail Baloch. Water bubbled along the edges of the island, in what appeared to be gas discharging from under the surface, he said. He said the area smelled of gas that caught fire when people lit cigarettes. Dead fish floated on the water’s surface while local residents were visiting the island and taking stones as souvenirs, he added. Such land masses had appeared before off the Makran coast, said Muhammed Arshad, a hydrographer with the navy. After quakes in 1999 and 2010, new land masses rose up along a different part of the coast. Both of them disappeared into the sea within a year during the monsoon rain season. He said that in the area where the island was created on Tuesday, the sea was only about six to seven metres deep.