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22 dead as another temblor jolts reeling southwest Pakistan region
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A POWERFUL 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit southwest Pakistan yesterday, killing at least 22 people in a region already devastated by a tremor which left more than 300 people dead this week, local officials said.
“The death toll is increasing. Rescue workers have so far recovered 22 dead bodies,” Hari Fal, the top government official in Khuzdar town said, adding that more than 50 people have been wounded.
Officials fear the toll in yesterday’s quake in Awaran, the poorest district in the southwest province of Baluchistan, could still rise further.
The new quake struck the remote district at a depth of 14 kilometers at 12:34pm, according to the US Geological Survey.
Although USGS said it was an aftershock of Tuesday’s 7.7-magnitude quake, an official at the National Seismic Center of Pakistan classified it as a new earthquake.
“It was not an aftershock, it was an independent earthquake,” Zahid Rafi, the center’s director, told Geo TV.
Awaran was shattered by the 7.7-magnitude quake on Tuesday which left 359 dead and more than 100,000 people homeless.
Relief efforts have at times been thwarted by insurgent attacks on rescue convoys, with local officials admitting that teams have been unable to reach thousands of survivors in the worst-hit areas.
“This new earthquake destroyed all that remains of the first quake, two villages destroyed completely,” said Abdul Malik, provincial chief minister of Baluchistan.
Pakistan’s chief meteorologist Arif Mehmood told Express News that the magnitude of yesterday’s quake was 7.2.
Officials said villagers were digging through newly created debris and that dozens of wounded people have been taken to a make-shift hospital in Mashkey area, Awaran.
“The condition of some the injured is critical,” doctor Asif Anwar said from the makeshift hospital.
Deputy Commissioner of Awaran, Abdul Rasheed Baloch said that the second quake destroyed hundreds of mud houses in the Mashkey area, adding that “a lot of people are trapped under the rubble.”
“The telephone system has been damaged and we are not able to talk to someone and find out the exact information about the losses ... But we have reports of severe losses in that area,” Baloch told Geo TV.
Even before the latest quake struck, local officials said some 30,000 survivors were still waiting for aid.
As well as being remote, the area is a stronghold of Baluch separatist rebels waging a decade-long insurgency against the Pakistani state.
Since the Tuesday quake, insurgents have launched several attacks on rescue teams and issued threats.
Malik, the Baluchistan chief minister, said that food and other rescue items would be distributed through local villagers. He appealed to local separatists to allow rescue officials to reach the survivors.
“It is a humanitarian tragedy and I appeal to them to allow rescue workers to help the survivors,” Malik said.
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