Relief gathers pace as death toll scales up

ISLAMABAD—Director General, Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj. General Shaukat Sultan on Saturday said there might be an increase in the number of 38,000 earthquake casualties so far registered.
About 62,000 injured have also been enlisted during the past eight days, Sultan told a private television channel.
There are still bodies lying under the debris of destroyed buildings in all the affected areas with hope of some survivors as well. The priority of rescue workers is to recover them.
Treatment facilities for the wounded persons is our priority, he said.
He said rain spell on Saturday morning in the affected areas hurdled the relief activities for some time but later the situation was improved.
The helicopters from Chaklala air base took off with the relief goods for AJK and NWFP, he said.
He said in the past few days the Army aviation established an air bridge between Chacklala air base and the affected areas, adding that huge consignments of relief goods were being transported through this mode.
It is a unique example in the history of aviation, he said.
From yesterday (Friday), the relief activities had also been started in inaccessible areas and the efforts were being enhanced moment by moment.
To a question he said provision of tents and blankets was direly needed in the areas vis-a-vis rainy weather and cold wave.
He said that work on Muzaffarabad-Neelum road was in progress from both the directions on war footings. Similarly the Balakot-Kaghan road was also being mended by the Army engineers.
He said four engineering battalions had been deployed at Jehlum Valley road.
All these efforts are focused on an earlier restoration of roads network in the affected area for convenient continuation of relief activities, he said.
Our Monitoring Desk adds: Rescue and relief operation in quake-hit areas of Azad Kashmir, NWFP and Northern areas was continuing at much accelerated pace.
According to PTV the operation has now been extended to the far flung and inaccessible areas. Various helicopters, road services and mules are being used aimed at ensuring prompt delivery to the affected families.
Search for those still lying alive under the debris was continuing with the help of foreign experts. Hundreds of doctors from home and friendly countries were providing emergency medical aid to the affectees.
Fifteen field hospitals set by the government, various NGOs and foreign teams were operating in the tremor hit areas.Seriously injured persons are being transported to hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad while others are treated in field camps.
The international telecommunication union has provided 55 satellite phones to the government. After hectic efforts, the Pakistan Army personnel have opened the Hasan Abdal-Batgram, Thakot-Bisham, Gilgit-Khunjrab, Gilgit-Skardu, Mansehra-Balakot, Mahandari-Naran and Naran-Swat roads for traffic.
In some areas, round the clock work continued to restore the land routes. A 65-member team of Punjab government officials has arrived in Muzaffarabad to help re-establish the structure of Azad Kashmir government.
Dispatch of food, water, medicines, warm clothes and other essential items to different affected areas is going on at a large scale.
According to army aviation Commander Major General Javed Aslam, 70 helicopters drawn from Pakistan army, the United States, Germany and Afghanistan are also involved in this operation. He said more helicopters are needed to carrying out the relief operation.
The United Nations refugee agency began flying aid into Pakistan Saturday while it will begin a massive air lift from Sunday.
United Nation’s World Food Program will use a fleet of 14 helicopters to support the relief operation. Four helicopters have begun airlifting food to earthquake victims in remote areas, it said.
A flight carrying supplies from the UN High Commission for Refugees’ warehouse in Denmark left Frankfurt yesterday, the agency said on its Web site.
More flights will leave Dubai, Turkey and Jordan this weekend.
According to UNHCR two flights carrying 4,000 tents will leave Dubai this weekend, ten flights are scheduled to leave Amman in Jordan from Sunday and a total of 54 flights will be needed to bring supplies out of Turkey.
The relief agencies have now shifted focus from finding survivors to bringing aid to the around 3.3 million people made homeless by the earthquake which killed 38,000 and injured another 62,000.
Since the Oct. 8 earthquake, he said, the region had received 584 aftershocks.