Balochistan quake victims clamour for aid

Families whose homes have been damaged camp out in the open.

MASHKHEL:

Balochistan earthquake victims staged protests on Friday, demanding the government do more to provide emergency relief and prevent the plundering of aid by sardars, as they prepared to spend a fourth night sleeping out in the open.

Tuesday’s 7.8-magnitude quake, centred in southeastern Iran, killed 41 people, all but one of whom were in Pakistan, where thousands more have been affected.

One of the worst-hit areas is Mashkhel in Balochistan, where a lack of paved roads, phone coverage and medical facilities have hampered the rescue effort.

Local residents held two protests on Friday outside government offices in Mashkhel, demanding shelter, and the restoration of electricity after poles in some areas were destroyed by the earthquake.

“Our houses have collapsed, and we are sleeping out in the open,” Noor-i-Khuda, a victim told The Express Tribune.

Protesters accused the local rulers, the nawabs and sardars, for plundering the little aid which they were receiving. Furthermore, they claimed that figures revealing destruction were much more than what was being reported, as the exact incidence of damage was not gauged, owing to areas which could not be accessed because of difficult geography.

“If this earthquake had struck some other area, all the government machinery would have gone. Here only two government officials came but delivered nothing,” Mohammad Khalil, a driver, told AFP.

“If they cannot do it, they should allow Iran to help us,” he added.

However, Frontier Corps Captain Saqib in Mashkhel said that medical facilities to victims were being provided.

On Friday, local Mashkhel administration official Syed Mureed Shah put the figure at more than 35,000 out of nearly 40,000 people scattered throughout the wider district of Washuk. Thousands of homes are believed to have been damaged.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2013.