M A I N   N E W S

700 perish in J&K
TNS and agencies

Uri, October 9
Stepping up rescue and relief efforts, troops joined by local people today struggled to access remote villages and sifted through rubbles of flattened houses pulling out more bodies in quake-hit Kashmir valley as the death count in the killer tremblor leapfrogged past 700.

The picture of more death and devastation unfolded as the Army and Air Force personnel accessed areas hithero untouched by rescue efforts even fresh tremors jolted parts of Jammu and Kashmir, keeping up the panic among residents.

Braving rain, panic-stricken victims spent overnight under the open sky complaining of poor response from the administration in providing relief.

Pilots of the IAF who flew over Karnah in the Keran sector in Kupwara district on the Line of Control for the first time this morning reported heavy devastation.

State government and army officials do not rule out the toll climbing further as several villages were yet to be reached by rescuers.

“The toll is expected to rise as there is no news from four villages in the Teetwal area,” a state government official said adding that 3,000 houses had been razed in Tangdhar alone.

Using spades and bare hands, thousands of security personnel looked for survivors and dug out the dead in worst-hit Uri and Tangdhar areas and the Army and IAF helicopters ferried the injured to hospitals in Srinagar.

Efforts are on to open up the arterial routes leading to the villages which have been cut off from the rest of state due to landslides, chief secretary Vijay Bakaya said in Srinagar.

He said the death toll across the state so far has touched 600 even as a pile of bodies was recovered from the debris of houses in Tangdhar and Uri areas.

In Tangdhar alone, 280 bodies were pulled out today — 257 civilians, 19 army personnel and three BSF men, Bakaya said.

Nearly 40 Border Road Organisation personnel were reported to have been buried in a massive landslide on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad highway between Uri and Aman Setu a portion of which also caved in.

Mr Bakaya said 325 deaths were recorded in Baramula district with most of them in Uri sector while six deaths were reported in Srinagar district.

Eighteen deaths were recorded in Poonch and other areas of the Jammu region along the LoC.

Army choppers undertook numerous sorties ferrying medicines and relief materials to remote areas and airlifted 100 injured persons by this evening to the base hospital, Defence Spokesman Col H Joneja said.

The IAF, besides rushing planeloads of medicines and relief equipment, also airdropped 5,000 food packets in areas which were not accessible by road or foot to the relief providing agencies.

Residents in many quake-hit areas complained of tardy pace of relief operations but officials said reaching many remote areas had been delayed due to landslides cutting off road links.

KARNAH (J&K): The fate of inhabitants of 12 villages in the Teetwal area in the Keran sector remained unknown even as 3,000 houses spread over 42 villages were wiped out in the Karnah area of Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Around 3000 houses have been destroyed completely in the Karnah area and out of the 42 villages in the area there is no information about the inhabitants of 12 villages in the Teetwal area, Finance Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig, who visited the area, said on Sunday.

He said 280 bodies, including those of 19 Army personnel, were recovered in the Karnah area alone till 1 pm.

Meanwhile, while several villages affected by the earthquake yesterday were yet to be reached by rescue teams, the death toll in the worst affected areas of Uri and Tangdhar has been put at 350, according to an information given to the Governor Lt Gen S.K. Sinha (retd).

Pak may seek Indian aid

Islamabad, October 9
Ruling out “misunderstanding” between Indian and Pakistan armies while dealing with relief operations in quake-hit divided Kashmir, President Pervez Musharraf today said Pakistan was considering Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s offer of assistance but Islamabad had to carefully work out what it needed from New Delhi due to the “sensitivities” involved. Whether he would seek help from India in view of the offer by Mr Singh to provide whatever assistance to assist people hit by the quake, President Musharraf told CNN “we are looking at it.” — PTI