Balochistan earthquake: 328 dead and counting

Relief goods being rushed to affected areas while government grapples with the situation as offers of help pour in.

QUETTA:

Desperate villagers clawed through the debris of their ruined mud-houses on Wednesday – a day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake ravaged parts of Balochistan, flattening hundreds of houses and killing their occupants.

Until late Tuesday, the picture wasn’t clear. The temblor damaged the cellular phone network in the impoverished province where infrastructure is already shoddy.  The quake was centred in Awaran district – a dirt-poor expanse of land where 50% of urban and 90% of rural settlements were flattened.

On Tuesday, there were conflicting reports about the death toll. Officials, however, agreed it wasn’t more than a few dozens. On Wednesday, they confirmed that fatalities have jumped past 300.

“At least 328 people have been confirmed dead and more than 450 injured,” the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said in a statement.



Local politicians disputed the figures.

“I have confirmed figures … the earthquake has killed over 1,000 people and injured many more,” Mir Qudus Bizenjo, the deputy speaker of the Balochistan Assembly, told reporters at the Quetta airport on Wednesday. “Over 40,000 houses have been flattened.”

Most of the casualties were reported from Awaran and Kech districts – the Mashkey and Hoshap areas in particular. Provincial government’s spokesperson Jan Buledai said at least 285 people were killed in Awaran and another 43 in Kech. The figures were confirmed by Kech Deputy Commissioner Abdul Hameed Abro.

However, a local journalist claimed that at least 177 people died in Mashkey and over 400 were injured, most of them seriously.

Naseer Mosiani, the assistant commissioner of Mashkey, told The Express Tribune that at least 70 students – including 25 girls – died when two Islamic seminaries collapsed in the region.

Local media persons said the death toll was more than 400. They claimed that government officials and rescuers have yet to visit the inaccessible parts of Awaran and Mashkey where destruction was much more widespread.

A television reporter, who reached Awaran late Tuesday night, said rescue and relief operations could not start until Wednesday afternoon – almost 24 hours after the earthquake struck.

He said there was a single small Basic Health Unit in Awaran with only 12 beds. “There is no medicine, no doctor… three injured persons share one bed,” he told The Express Tribune. He claimed that many dead in Awaran were buried without proper rites.



In the village of Dalbedi, the quake flattened some 250 houses, an AFP photographer said. Bewildered villagers dug with their hands through the rubble of their mud houses in the village to retrieve what was left of their meagre possessions.

The Balochistan chief secretary surveyed the scale of devastation in Awaran and its adjoining settlements from the air. Talking to reporters after the visit, he said supplies for the survivors have been sent from Karachi, Khuzdar and Quetta.

According to Kalat Commissioner Dr Mohammad Akbar, 40 pickup trucks laden with relief goods and food had been rushed from Khuzdar to Awaran. The provincial government spokesperson said the government has sent 19 truckloads of relief items, food and medical supplies.

By Wednesday evening, trucks were seen moving towards Awaran.

In Islamabad, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said that the state institutions were capable of dealing with the situation in Balochistan.  Several countries and international donors have offered to help the quake survivors, but the government decided to face the challenge itself, he added.

Earlier, the United Nations offered help in relief efforts. “The UN and its humanitarian partners are in close contact with the NDMA and stand ready to provide assistance and mobilise more support from the international community, if requested,” said a UN spokesperson. “In the meantime, the World Health Organisation has provided emergency health kits and a trauma kit to help thousands of people.”  (With additional input from WIRES)

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2013.