Rescuers race to reach quake zones in Afghanistan, Pakistan as toll crosses over 300
Kabul/ISLAMABAD: The Taliban on Tuesday urged charity organisations not to hold back in delivering aid to Afghan victims of a devastating earthquake, saying militants in the affected areas were ordered to provide “complete help”.
At least 76 people were killed in Afghanistan after the powerful quake struck on Tuesday in the Hindu Kush region, officials said, raising fears that the toll could rise as the full extent of the devastation emerges.
At least 237 people have died in Pakistan in the powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake.
Rescuers are battling to access some of the worst-affected areas across multiple provinces that are effectively under militant control, a huge challenge to any official aid efforts. But the Taliban today promised to pave access for aid organisations.
“The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) calls on… charitable organisations to not hold back in providing shelter, food and medical supplies to the victims of this earthquake,” the group said on its website.
“It similarly orders its Mujahideen in the affected areas to lend their complete help to the victims and facilitate those giving charity to the needy.” Afghan disaster management officials say areas around the quake’s epicentre in the remote province of Badakhshan as well as neighbouring provinces such as Takhar and Kunar have suffered huge devastation.
Afghanistan’s chief executive Abdullah Abdullah said an initial assessment shows around 4,000 houses have been damaged by the powerful quake.
“Some 76 people including women and children were killed and 268 others were injured in the quake,” he said.
The death toll in the quake – the strongest in 10 years – in Pakistan has now risen to 237 from the earlier figure of 228 which included 214 dead in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), 5 in Punjab, and 9 in PoK, local media reports said. A spokesman of FATA Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) said 31 people were killed and 88 injured in FATA with 26 dead in Bajaur, four in Mohmand and one in Khyber Agency.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said at least 1,620 people have been injured across Pakistan.
“Till this morning, 185 people have died and 1,456 including women and children sustained injures in KP as several are in critical condition,” said an official of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA).
He said PDMA has constituted seven teams to visit the affected districts for rapid need assessment and to supervise relief activities on grounds.
Over 2,000 tents, blankets and floor mats have been dispatched to the affected districts besides 1,000 food packets for the worst-affected Chitral district. The official said Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Dir Upper and Lower and Toarghar districts are the most affected districts where infrastructure and houses were damaged on a large scale.
He said rescue and relief operations in the affected districts are continuing as civil administration, police, health and revenue authorities are participating in the relief operations besides army personnel. (Agencies)