Earthquake-hit Awaran: After sporadic attacks, relief supplies start trickling in

More than 50 doctors are tending to the injured in the stricken district.

QUETTA/ ISLAMABAD:

At least 70 truckloads of relief goods have been  dispatched to different areas of the quake-hit Awaran district, Deputy Commissioner Awaran Rashid Baloch said on Sunday.

More than 50 doctors are providing healthcare facilities to the people in the district, the deputy commissioner told The Express Tribune.

Assistant Commissioner of Mashkay Naseer Ahmad Mosiani said 10 truckloads of tents have reached the town on Sunday.

“There are 1,200 tents to be distributed among the people,” he told The Express Tribune.

He further said that 30 people died and 150 were injured in the fresh earthquake in Nokjo area of the tehsil.

Ismail Sasoli, a local journalist, said about 80 truckloads of relief goods had arrived in Awaran. Of these, 11 were dispatched to Malar, 13 to Labash, 35 to Gishkor, 16 to Teer Hind and 10 to Mashkay.

Although relief is pouring in, there were doubts if it was reaching the affected people. “Local residents of Mashkay claim that they have not received any relief supplies to this date,” Sasoli said.

Mashkay Medical Officer Dr Saleh Baloch said 150 injured patients had been given treatment at Nokjo, the worst hit area of the district. Most of the patients were sent to Awaran so that they could be shifted to Karachi for more advanced treatment. “There is no X-ray machine in any hospital at Mashkay,” he said.

Leaving town

Fed up with unending miseries and blockade of aid to the quake zone, the affected people of Mashkay are ready to migrate to other areas, preferably to cities, for sustenance, a local journalist Shabbir Rakhshani told The Express Tribune.

Rakhshani said he had met many families waiting for transport because they wanted to leave the town. He said that some government functionaries, most of them local employees of the administration, were not distributing relief goods to affected people

Quake briefing

Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik and Lt-Gen Commander of the Southern Command Nasser Khan Janjua were briefed by local officials on the situation in the quake zone.

Dr Malik reiterated that the provincial government will reconstruct the destroyed houses through national and international contractors and no individual will be given any financial aid to rebuild their homes. The chief minister also visited the local hospital on Sunday and inquired about the patients’ health.

NDMA report

As search and rescue workers continue their work, the death toll has reached 375 and over 800 people injured in the earthquake-hit areas of Balochistan and Sindh, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in a statement.

According to NDMA, 46 bodies have been recovered from the Kech and the other deaths occurred in Awaran.

So far, 12,275 ration packs, 16,735 tents, 6,160 blankets, 1,700 plastic bags, 300 mosquito nets, 13,900 water bottles and three tonnes of miscellaneous food items have reached earthquake affected areas of Balochistan, it said.

“For a well-planned and sustained logistic support, forward bases have been established at Khuzdar and Bela. They are functioning in coordination with the Army and district administration,” NDMA said.

Meanwhile, in order to coordinate the relief efforts in earthquake hit areas of Balochistan, Member Operations NDMA Brig Kamran Zia reached Awaran on Sunday.

On his arrival, he was briefed by Brig Abrar on the relief and response activities in the affected district. GOC 33division, Major Gen Shamraiz, along with Brig Kamran Zia, also visited injured persons under treatment at Awaran district hospital.

Chinese assistance

A third relief consignment from China has reached Faisal Airbase Karachi on Sunday. The relief cargo includes tents and medical and surgical items, weighing 93.31 tonnes.

The first and second Chinese relief consignment has already reached Karachi airport on 28th September carrying tents and blankets, medicines, emergency medical equipment, water purification equipment, and emergency lights weighing 274.15 in total, said the NDMA.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2013.

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