W O R L D

World rushes relief to Pak
Islamabad, October 9
As Pakistan struggled to cope with the destruction caused by the worst earthquake in a century, the international community rushed relief and rescue material as well as medical help for the victims of the disaster.

Residents wait for relief under the open sky as their houses were destroyed by a severe earthquake in Balakot, 90 km from Islamabad, on Sunday. AP/PTI photo

Rain, landslides hamper rescue operations
Islamabad, October 9
A day after the massive tremblor almost wiped out more than half the population of the forested hill regions of PoK, village after village today bore the look of ghost towns with survivors reliving the horrors of the quake as rain, muck and fresh tremors hampered rescue work.

Parents try to reach trapped children
Balakot (Pakistan), October 9
With hands, picks and shovels, desperate parents struggled today to reach more than 850 children trapped in the rubble of two schools flattened by the massive earthquake in northern Pakistan.

Al-Qaida planned to smash jet into Heathrow
London, October 9
Al-Qaida terrorists planned to hijack a passenger jet from eastern Europe and fly it into a packed terminal at the Heathrow airport, a media report today said. The plot, which was taken so seriously that ministers considered shutting down the airport, reveals the reason why Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered armoured vehicles and hundreds of troops to be sent to Heathrow in 2003, The Sunday Times claimed quoting security sources.

Puja begins amid fear Dhaka, October 9 As the festival of Durga Puja began in the country on Sunday, the Bangladesh government has erected a massive security bulwark to prevent terror attacks. The bomb attacks across the country on August 17 and the other on courts in three districts on October 3 by Islamic militants have spurred the authorities to fortify security. Bangladeshi women worship during the Durga Puja festival in Dhaka on Sunday. — Reuters photo

Bangladeshi Hindus prepare for Durga Puja. (28k, 56k)

Mt Everest is 8844.43-metre-high now. (28k, 56k)

World rushes relief to Pak

Islamabad, October 9
As Pakistan struggled to cope with the destruction caused by the worst earthquake in a century, the international community rushed relief and rescue material as well as medical help for the victims of the disaster.

The US promised $ 1,00,000 for the victims of the 7.6 magnitude quake described by President George W Bush as a “horrible tragedy.”

Expressing “deepest sympathies” for the loss of life and destruction, he said “our initial deployments of assistance are under way, and we stand ready to provide additional assistance as needed.”

A British team equipped with sophisticated equipment like metal and heat detectors already arrived here this morning and launched a rescue operation at the site of a collapsed multi-storeyed “Margala Towers” building.

Earlier, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the government was sending $ 1,77,000 along with 60 medical staff, emergency staff and foreign office staff.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said yesterday that up to three million euros could be approved within a day if requested by agencies working on the ground.

Hours after the quake struck yesterday, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf over the phone and offered all assistance in the relief and rescue work.

The United Nations has sent an eight-member disaster assessment and coordination team to Pakistan with a mandate to ensure all possible help to the country which was rocked by the massive earthquake and also released a $ 1,00,000 cash grant for immediate relief to the victims of the disaster.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was “deeply saddened by the loss of life and destruction” caused by the quake.

The UNICEF has also begun relief supplies to the affected areas from its warehouses in Karachi and prepared to get supplies from its other warehouses in the region.

China airlifted a 49-member rescue team and search equipment to earthquake-hit areas in Pakistan. The team also has six search dogs, eight tonnes of search equipment and nine tonnes of relief material.

In a condolence message to his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf, Chinese President Hu Jintao offered his condolences to the victims’ families and the injured. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao also sent his condolences. — PTI

Rain, landslides hamper rescue operations

Islamabad, October 9
A day after the massive tremblor almost wiped out more than half the population of the forested hill regions of PoK, village after village today bore the look of ghost towns with survivors reliving the horrors of the quake as rain, muck and fresh tremors hampered rescue work.

Army personnel helped by local volunteers pulled out bodies from under the heap of debris with bare hands, their work rendered twice as difficult due to the overnight rain, which turned the loose dirt into muck.

Chants from the Koran rent the air everytime aftershocks from the quake sent shockwaves amongst the remaining survivors, interrupted only with wails of people who have lost their dear ones.

As military helicopters continued rescue and relief, in Balakot, QaumiKot, Kufalgarh, Bagh and surrounding areas, people covered the dead with white sheets, the injured still awaiting medical help.

Over 17,000 people are dead in PoK area and 90 per cent houses razed to the ground, according to officials. TV channels showed injured, including women and children, their wounds wrapped in blood-soaked clothes eagerly awaiting medical help.

With the improvement in weather after night-long showers, army helicopters, besides providing relief materials ferried the injured from remote regions to the capital and nearby centres.

“Everything was over even before we realised fully what was happening,” Mr Rahim Ilahi, mourning the loss of his wife and two daughters was quoted as saying. “Rocks came tumbling down the mountainside, the houses fell like cards,” Ilahi, a resident of Bagh said, the terror still fresh in his eyes.

The very remoteness of some of the villages, army personnel say, is adding to the woes of relief and rescue operations.

Streets lay strewn with remains of houses, trees uprooted and cables lay half hanging from the poles in the region.

With rubbish and boulders piling into the Neelum river, threat of an imminent flood looms large.

The fresh water sources have also choked up with mud and debris and dearth of drinking water in the affected areas is likely to add to the crisis, officials say.

Over 400 children also died yesterday in Balakot, soon after they had settled down in their classrooms in the early hours when the disaster struck. — PTI

Parents try to reach trapped children

Balakot (Pakistan), October 9
With hands, picks and shovels, desperate parents struggled today to reach more than 850 children trapped in the rubble of two schools flattened by the massive earthquake in northern Pakistan.

The voices of trapped children and the anguished wails of their parents accompanied the frantic work in the Balakot valley, in the mountains of Northwest Frontier Province, one of the areas worst hit by last morning’s devastating quake.

“Save me, call my mother, call my father,” came the faint voice of a boy, again and again, from the rubble of a government school in which local people said about 200 children were trapped.

“Bring out my child, bring out my child,” his mother wailed, beating her chest as other parents and relatives pulled out the bodies of four children.

A day on, police and emergency services were no where in sight.

Thousands were injured, mostly women and children who were in their homes at the time of the disaster, while their men worked in the open. Almost every second woman or child bore an injury.

At the private Shaheen School, another 650 children were trapped inside the four-storey building that collapsed.

Parents said they could hear the cries of children, but were helpless until they managed to get makeshift rescue equipment, including iron bars they used to lever away rubble.

The Balakot region is a scene of massive devastation. Perhaps half of the concrete houses have collapsed and dozens of bodies lay in the open.

Residents complained about the lack of help. The road into the town has been blocked by landslides, and it is only possible to reach the town on foot.

A Reuters reporter counted 105 bodies on the eight-kilometre (five-mile) trek into town. Some bodies were laid out by the roadside by relatives hoping for help with their burial. Others were carried on charpoys, or traditional rope beds.

A small boy carried a younger sister of perhaps four or five, her skin stripped off her face and the side of her body, by a rock that flattened their house. He did not know what to do.

“There are no bandages or anything at all,” he said. “There are no doctors, no nothing — where should we go?”

A German woman doctor running a leprosy centre in Balakot said they were doing what they could to help. She said six of their patients died when the centre’s roof collapsed and 20 were hurt.

“I’ve been involved in helping refugees for the last 17 years, but I am in shock because I have never seen such devastation,” said the doctor, Chris Schmoter.

“The government sends troops and doctors to foreign countries — why is it taking them so long to come here?” a victim asked referring to help sent by Pakistan for last year’s Asian Tsunami victims and other disasters. — Reuters

Muzaffarabad is “city of death”

Muzaffarabad, October 9
The main city in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) was a scene of utter devastation today, 24 hours after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck. “It’s total devastation. It looks like the city of death,” said reporter Zulfiqar Ali, who was in the Capital, Islamabad, when the earthquake hit yesterday morning.

Stopped from reaching his hometown of Muzaffarabad by washed-out roads last night, Ali walked the remaining distance this morning into a scene of complete destruction.

Most houses and most government buildings and shops had collapsed in the small mountain city, he said.

“No one knows how many have been killed or how many survived,” Ali said by satellite telephone.

“Those buildings that have withstood the shocks are badly cracked and no one is going into them.”

The quake was centred in the forested mountains of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and violently jolted large parts of northern Pakistan as well as parts of India and Afghanistan.

About 18,000 people were killed in Pakistan, a presidential spokesman said. The quake also battered Kashmir, killing more than 300 persons there.

Frightened Muzaffarabad residents spent a chilly last night in the open, camped in fields, parks, graveyards and cars.

Most people had no food because shops or markets did not open.

The army had set up camps and provided some food to survivors but much more help was needed, Ali said. — Reuters

Al-Qaida planned to smash jet into Heathrow

London, October 9
Al-Qaida terrorists planned to hijack a passenger jet from eastern Europe and fly it into a packed terminal at the Heathrow airport, a media report today said. The plot, which was taken so seriously that ministers considered shutting down the airport, reveals the reason why Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered armoured vehicles and hundreds of troops to be sent to Heathrow in 2003, The Sunday Times claimed quoting security sources.

It has now emerged that Mi5, the British internal intelligence agency, received detailed intelligence in February 2003 about a two-pronged plan to target Britain because of its decision to send troops in support of America’s invasion of Iraq.

The second element of the operation, inspired by Osama Bin Laden, involved a mortar attack on a departing passenger plane. It was organised by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Al-Qaida operations chief and mastermind of the September 11 attacks, the sources said.

Details of the plot have been provided by British sources after the White House issued a list of 10 Al-Qaida plots foiled by America and its partners, including Britain. — PTI

Puja begins amid fear
Farid Ahmed

Dhaka, October 9
As the festival of Durga Puja began in the country on Sunday, the Bangladesh government has erected a massive security bulwark to prevent terror attacks. The bomb attacks across the country on August 17 and the other on courts in three districts on October 3 by Islamic militants have spurred the authorities to fortify security.

On the eve of the festival, Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Sheikh Hasina, greeted the Hindu community.

Mr Chakraborty said this year there were a record number of `mandaps’(marquees). He urged the festival organisers to cooperate with the authorities to maintain law and order. — IANS