Quake death toll leaps to 73,276
By Zulfiqar Ahmad

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan on Wednesday revised the death toll from the Oct 8 earthquake to 73,276, with 69,260 seriously injured in country’s worst ever natural calamity which rendered over 3.3 million people homeless.
Federal Relief Commissioner, Major General Farooq Ahmed Khan told reporters during a briefing that the figure has been collated by the Ministry of Interior in consultation with the provincial government of NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
“When I say injured, it means seriously injured”, General Farooq said and added there was likelihood that the number of dead would further rise.
He said the updated figures were possible after the relief workers had started removing rubble from some of the worst hit areas.
The majority of the houses in the mountainous rural areas are made of stones and disintegrated due to the 7.6 magnitude quake. The town of Balakot and Muzaffarabad experienced the worst with over 90 per cent structures destroyed, while numerous villages simply vanished under the landslides.
The Relief Commissioner said only in Rawalpindi and Islamabad 4,032 injured from the affected areas have had amputations.
“We are setting up two medical rehabilitation and prosthetic centres at AJK and NWFP, but we urgently require two air ambulances and four mobile hospitals with facility to conduct operations”.
General Farooq said some of the foreign medical teams were leaving, however urged them to donate their equipment for use by the local communities and doctors, who need these desperately.
“They have done a tremendous job and only if they can stay back longer it will be a great help,” he added.
He said the three main valleys; Jhelum, Neelum and Kaghan were not yet open for traffic due to the heavy damage to the roads, but said efforts were underway to open these at the earliest.
“We have reached out to 2734 of 2775 affected villages and only 41 remain where we are yet to establish our permanent presence”.
The Relief Commissioner said the inaccessible villages mean that the army has not set up its camp there, but the people are being provided food, tents and medical help through helicopters.
General Farooq said over 4000 sorties were flown by helicopters from Pakistan and other friendly countries from the Main Operational Bases. He said the number of sorties from Forward and Advanced bases was not included.
The Federal Relief Commissioner said the rehabilitation of the psychologically affected people traumatised by the massive devastation was a gigantic task for the relief workers. “We have sent 60 teams, but we need psycho therapy for hundreds of thousands, but unfortunately we have a limited capacity,” he added.
General Farooq said the society needs to come forward to help their traumatised brothers and sisters.
Spend your eid day with those who lost their everything, without a photo op, and help them stand back on their feet,” he added.
About the people still on the mountain tops, he said, most of the people generally migrate to valleys in winters, but some choose to stay on heights from 5000 to 7000 meters.
“We will not force them to come down, and our detachments in the remote areas will stay there to help the locals rebuild,” he said.
He said the people despite living in the remotest areas and under harshest of climate have no desire to leave their abode.
“They love their land, even those living along the Line of Control had to suffer due to Indian firing in the past, but they refused to relocate,” Farooq said.
Regarding the donations in President’s Relief Fund, he said, of the Rs 5.352 billion pledged, Rs 5.150 billion has been deposited. The total foreign assistance is US $ 2.051 billion, including 1.929 billion in pledges, US $1.112 billion in pledges including goods, services and medical, US $ 70 million in pledges for food aid, US $ 747 million as soft credit and US $ 122 million as pledges against the UN flash appeal.
The Relief Commissioner said the government’s priorities were to provide one tent per family immediately. So far, he said, around 300,000 tents have been provided, while another 300,000 would be available by Nov 30.
He said the government was providing 25,000 cash to the people to start building at least one room for shelter during the winters.
He said the relief workers were now distributing tents and other relief goods to the remotest of areas and than working backwards to the main bases.
He said there has been lot of improvement in coordination amongst all the relief agencies and now there is no more duplication.
He said of the 72 km Neelum valley road, 6 km from Muzaffarabad for traffic has been cleared. While two mule tracks; 33 km from Muzaffarabad to Deolian, and 20 km from Jura to Noseri have been constructed. He said efforts were underway to make it jeepable.
Similarly of the 43 km Laswa bypass, 25 km has been opened from Jura.
Of the 54 km Jhelum valley, 52 km from Muzaffarabad to Hatian Bala has been cleared.
The Balakot-Kaghan road, 18.7 km from Balakot, and 35.7 from Kaghan has been cleared. A patch of 6.4 km is yet to be cleared while the mule track has been opened.
Regarding the telecommunication network, he said, all fixed lines in NWFP are restored and all exchanges functional, while 2,831 need to be fixed in AJK, while still 20 exchanges require restoration in AJK.
He said 10 containerized self sufficient satellite terminals along with one hub at Muzaffarabad with E1 connectivity are required for provision of immediate telecom facilities at severely damaged sites in Neelum and Jhelum valleys.