Pakistan's army was flying geologists to an isolated northwestern valley yesterday to investigate reports of possible volcanic activity after the massive Oct. 8 earthquake that killed about 80,000 people, an official said.
The Pakistani geologists will survey the Alai Valley, and if they find evidence of a volcanic eruption the 150,000 people who live there will be evacuated, said army spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan.
Army helicopters flew over the rugged region of North West Frontier Province on Monday and did not find any signs of an eruption, Sultan said.
PHOTO: AP
An estimated 3.3 million people have been left homeless by the Oct. 8 quake, which has been followed by hundreds of aftershocks that have frightened survivors and periodically triggered landslides.
A huge international relief effort has been mounted, but fears remain for vulnerable communities in distant mountains, with the harsh Himalayan winter closing in.
Despite fresh appeals and warnings of a second wave of deaths, the UN said on Monday it has received less than 30 percent of the US$312 million it desperately needs to help the victims.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan invited ministers to attend a high-level donor conference in Geneva today to mobilize additional financial support.
Cloudy weather yesterday raised concern that rain could fall in the coming days. But Major Farooq Nasir, army spokesman in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan's portion of Kashmir, said helicopter relief flights were still operating.
Sultan said it was possible that people in the Alai Valley -- located at a height of about 1,800m and surrounded by mountains as high as 3,000m -- could be mistaking the noise of aftershocks or landslides for the sound of a volcano.
"It could be more prominent in the valley because it is very narrow and aftershocks trigger landslides in the mountains, which have already been cut by the earthquake. It kicks up dust due to which local people believe there could be some volcanic activity," he said.
An official from Pakistan's meteorological department, who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media, said there was very little chance of volcanic activity as there was no recent history of eruptions in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, police in the quake-hit Mansehra district, north of Islamabad, have arrested 350 to 400 people over the past two weeks for taking relief supplies -- whether by stealing them outright or lining up to receive supplies more than once, police chief Yamin Khan said.
The arrests have been made in a number of damaged towns since relief started flowing in for quake victims, Khan said.
"We want to ensure that only those who need the aid get it," he said.
Many were later released on bail, another police official said on condition of anonymity. They could face up to three years in jail, he said.
Indian soldiers have set up a relief camp for Pakistani quake victims along the Line of Control dividing the rivals' areas of Kashmir, although the camp remains empty as India and Pakistan try to broker a deal to allow people to cross the militarized frontier.
Also yesterday, a US Army field hospital unit, with more than 130 staff, started treating patients in Muzaffarabad on a mission Washington hopes will help generate goodwill among Pakistanis.
Officials say it is the eighth mobile hospital to set up in the ruined city, and only two patients were waiting at its gate when it opened yesterday morning. The hospital's arrival was delayed by a shortage of aircraft, vehicle breakdowns and the winding roads of the lower Himalayas.
The first of the patients, Aribba Abbasi, a three-year-old girl, was suffering a broken thigh from when her home collapsed on her. The other, Faisal Hussain, an eight-year-old boy, had been caught in a collapsed school and had a bad gash on his ankle. Both had already received treatment but needed aftercare.
The official quake toll currently states that more than 53,000 are dead and 75,000 injured.
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