Air force helicopters resumed drops yesterday of urgently needed relief supplies to the survivors of the weekend earthquake in inaccessible areas of Indian Kashmir, after nearly 12 hours of disruption caused by heavy rains and snow, officials said.
As the weather cleared, trucks started snaking their way along the twisting Himalayan roads carrying tents, blankets, medicines, rice and flour for the destitute villagers, said Vijay Bakaya, the top official of Jammu-Kashmir state.
Saturday's 7.6-magnitude quake killed at least 1,555 people in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The temblor damaged 42,720 houses and partially damaged 74,000 more, said Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
PHOTO: AP
Sayeed said yesterday that 95 more bodies had been recovered, including seven children who died of hypothermia, he said.
The heavy rains had caused further landslides, closing roads and making conditions too dangerous for relief work.
"There was too much mud, our vehicles were sliding on the road ... but today is better," said Mohammed Rafiq, pointing to the clear sky.
Rafiq, a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Liberation Front -- a separatist group that favors independence from India -- and other members of his group were handing out clothes and shoes to women and children in the village of Salamabad, near the cease-fire line in the divided region.
The worst hit Uri and Tangdar areas are both close to the line, known as the Line of Control, that splits Kashmir between rivals India and Pakistan.
The quake caused much greater destruction in the Pakistani Kashmir. The official Pakistani death toll stood at 23,000, with some estimating it could be twice as high.
India was to deliver nearly 25 tons of aid to Pakistan by a transport plane early yesterday, said Mahesh Upasani, the Indian air force spokesman.
Also yesterday, workers with heavy earthmovers were slowly clearing the road that leads to the Peace Bridge, which connects the two Kashmirs. In some areas the road is buried under more than 3m of rubble. The bridge itself also collapsed in the earthquake.
Jittery residents were shaken awake late on Tuesday by an aftershock that rocked the area.
"I felt the earth start to move, my heart was very fast," said Ajaz Ahmad, 26, from the village of Gowalta. "I started to cry," he said.
India's meteorological office said it was a 5-magnitude shock. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
On Tuesday, India's prime minister toured the worst-hit areas of Uri and Tangdar and vowed to spare no expense in helping the region recover from the earthquake.
"Whatever is needed to rehabilitate, whatever is needed for relief, the central government stands committed to help," said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
RSS