Quake
toll rises to 600 in J-K
Srinagar:
The death toll in quake-hit Jammu and Kashmir has risen
to 600 and is expected to mount further as frantic rescuers
announced at least 258 people have been found killed in
one town taking the toll nearly double of the initial estimate..
"The toll is expected to rise as there is no news from four
villages in Teetwal area", a state government official said
adding that 3,000 houses had been razed in Tangdhar region
alone. Bakaya had said that 157 deaths have been registered
in Kupwara district while Baramulla has recorded 139 and
Srinagar six. 18 deaths were also reported from Jammu region
from areas falling near the Line of Control. As many as
41 security personnel were reported killed in the temblor,
which had triggered landslides that wiped out several bunkers
along the LoC. The Central team would visit Jammu and Kashmir
only after some time so that the ongoing relief and rescue
work was not affected, he said.
Meanwhile,
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi
during her visit to the quake-affected areas in the state
met quake survivors and grieving families. Gandhi, who surveyed
Uri and Baramullah, told people that the nation is standing
by them in their grief and assured them all help. "We are
here to share your grief. Whatever help that is need, be
it to build homes, for medical treatment, for tents for
rebuilding shops, as the defence minister also just said,
we will send you all the relief that is needed from New
Delhi and the government of Jammu and Kashmir," she said.
Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the nearly
600 dead included 48 army and paramilitary personnel, some
in bunkers close to the ceasefire line. "108 plus 480 that
means nearly 600 people upto now accounted for have been
killed, 915 are injured," he said. Army teams have meanwhile
restored traffic on a key 300-km (185- mile) stretch of
highway connecting Srinagar to the rest of the country after
landslides blocked the road. Uri, the last big town on the
highway connecting the two sides of Kashmir, and its nearby
areas accounted for about 130 deaths.
On
Sunday it resembled a ghost town with most resident either
already in hospitals or at relief camps. Saturday's huge
quake and string of aftershocks were felt across much of
northern India, including the capital, New Delhi. Indian
soldiers had to trek many kilometres and clear a series
of landslides to reach the remote village, minutes away
from the military ceasefire line dividing the India and
Pakistan. Saturday's 7.6-magnitude quake, which claimed
at least 19,400 lives in Pakistan, was centred about 95
km (60 miles) northeast of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
The south Asian subcontinent is prone to earthquakes. About
20,000 people were killed in January 2001 when a quake measuring
7.7 struck India's western state of Gujarat.
Rescue
operations on (Go
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Srinagar:
Saturday's earthquake, the severest in 120 years to
strike Jammu and Kashmir, demolished hundreds of homes and
killed 600 people and injured around 1000, majority of them
in the district of Uri, bordering Pakistan. Srinagar was
hit by dozen-odd aftershocks since Saturday when a powerful
earthquake of 7.6 magnitudes hit the region, leaving a trail
of destruction. Some 2,000 houses have been damaged, and
disaster management authorities are working round the clock
to rescue people who are still trapped in the debris. "I
looked back at my home and saw a sight I can never forget.
My home crashed as if it was made of sand. The earth under
my feet started cracking. It is the worst disaster I have
ever seen," said Gulab Khan, a local.The
epicentre of the earthquake, which lasted some four-and-a-
half minutes and measured 7.6 on the Richter scale, lay
in Muzaffarabad, 95 km north of Islamabad and 115 km northwest
of Srinagar. "Every thing is destroyed. There is nothing
left. We will have to build it all again," said Tanoom Sheikh,
another local. Meanwhile, aftershocks measuring 6.0 on the
Richter were also felt in parts of Pakistan, however, no
casualties have been reported so far. The aftershocks were
felt at around 2 p.m. local time today.
The
Army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) have launched relief
and rescue operations. Thousands of Army men joined by other
security personnel and locals used spades and bare hands
today to rummage through rubble to look for survivors in
the quake-devastated areas of Uri and Tangdhar in Jammu
and Kashmir. Army choppers undertook numerous sorties to
rush medicine and relief equipment to remote areas and airlifted
57 people to the base hospital in Srinagar by noon. The
IAF also rushed a planeload of medicine and relief equipment
from Srinagar to Tangdhar, where several casualties have
been reported. The State Government has dispatched over
2,000 police personnel and home guards and provided satellite
phones to maintain connectivity between the worst-affected
Uri and Tangdhar towns with Srinagar.
30,000
died in quake in PoK (Go
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Muzaffarabad
(PoK): If media reports are to be believed, more than
30,000 people died in Pakistan-occupied- Kashmir (PoK) alone
during Saturday's earthquake. Quoting a PoK minister, Indian
TV channels reported that while the city of Muzafarrabad
was devastated to a great extent, a number of other nearby
towns and cities were completely destroyed by the quake
and the aftershocks. "More than 30,000 people expectedly
died in the earthquake, and the worst hit place was Bagh
near Muzaffarabad," the minister was quoted as saying. This
is the latest update about the extent of loss of lives caused
by the earthquake, which originated from Muzafarrabad. Earlier,
a Pakistani military spokesman had put the death toll at
18,000, with most of casualties reported from Punjab and
North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Fijian
PM visits Rajghat (Go
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New
Delhi: Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, on a weeklong
visit to India, visited Rajghat today to pay homage to Mahatma
Gandhi, the Father of the Nation. Qarase's visit is expected
to boost economic ties and cooperation in key areas with
India. Qarase and his wife Leba paid tributes to Gandhi
at Rajghat, where he remembered the apostle of peace, who
began his fight for justice in South Africa, after getting
inspired from conditions of Indian labourers of Fiji. The
system of indentured labour was abolished in Fiji in 1920.
At least 38 percent of people living in Fiji are of Indian
origin. Qarase is being accompanied by a 50-member delegation
of government officials and prominent businessmen. Qarase
also visited the Taj Mahal in Agra. He will hold talks with
top Indian leadership, including Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh on Monday. This is the first visit by Qarase to India
since he came to power five years ago. The visit is being
seen as an important opportunity by both sides to improve
relations between India and Fiji. India and Fiji are expected
to sign a general memorandum of understanding on development
cooperation during Qarase's visit. The memorandum will be
for three years initially and may be extended with the consent
of both sides. The two countries are also expected to sign
an agreement on health service partnership, which will enable
the two countries to explore technical collaboration and
exchange of information in areas such as medical treatment,
drugs and pharmaceutical products. Qarase will also officially
open the Fiji High Commission in New Delhi, which was established
last year.
