Kashmir Quake updates

I didnt ask for this. In one of my earlier posts, I was mentioning that most active blogs were started to compile info about concurrent disasters (natural or otherwise). I was also being tongue in cheek about I missing an oppurtunity to write about Tsunami/Katrina. I was being facetious, but didnt expect another disaster would hit so quick and so hard. My thoughts are with families who were victimized and I hope everyone of them would find strength soon to get back on their feet.

Express spends the day with soldiers near Kaman post

NEAR KAMAN POST (LOC), OCTOBER 11:
Havaldar Yoginder Malik is injured everywhere. One foot is fractured, another has a deep wound and a large bloodstain is visible through several layers of bandage. A platoon commander of Border Security Force’s Dullanja post right at the Line of Control, it took Malik two days to claw through the earth and the stones to emerge alive.

He says the quake turned the bunker into a death trap. Then he starts crying. ‘‘I saw two of my colleagues die. I thought this is the end. The faces of my two children were in front of my eyes.’’

Those eyes are now counting themselves lucky. For, perched on a hilltop not far from the devastated Dullanja post across the Jhelum is a Gurkha Rifles post. Along with its 20 soldiers, it fell 2000 feet down, straight into the river. Until this afternoon, not one of the dead have been recovered. No one’s looking — there is simply no time.

Preoccupied by a massive rescue and relief effort, the Army here has just one priority: saving lives. And survivors in at least a dozen villages, stranded and devastated, have countless anecdotes to tell.

Of how choppers are making dozens of sorties to the helipad at Udoosa—the last village on the Line of Control—to transport the seriously injured to Uri and Srinagar.

Of how an Army doctor, Lt Bidhan Chandar, treks for an hour every morning up in the hills to Guvalta, a severely hit village. How he has set up a medical camp and has treated more than 500 villagers in the last two days. ‘‘There is such a rush that it seems no villager has escaped unhurt,’’ Chander says. He has to walk down to stay in a small hut at Udoosa because ‘‘there is nowhere to spend nights in Guvalta.’’

The 7 Dogra, a regiment deployed along the LoC, has suffered huge losses. Their bunkers lie in ruins. But the soldiers say they have no time to mourn. ‘‘There is so much sadness here. And helping the villagers has kept us so busy that we can’t even think of who we have lost,’’ says a jawan, who introduced himself as Yogesh. ‘‘Our company lost four. There were 15 injured.’’

He recalls how an injured woman was crying in pain. ‘‘She asked for water. There was none. So I took her to the stream and put a few drops into her mouth but she died,’’ says Yogesh. ‘‘When I returned to the bunker, my colleagues were writhing in pain.’’

Barely a metre away, Captain A S Alok is giving details of the day’s relief work and there’s not a single mention of help going to a colleague. It’s all about blankets and rations for the villagers.

Capt. Alok’s expression has a deceptive calm given that he had two near-miracle escapes. ‘‘I can’t even express what happened. I was on my way to Chakus village up in the hills. Suddenly, the mountains trembled. It was as if our vehicle was being tossed on a springboard...I saw Guvalta village crumble in front of my eyes. I saw our own bunkers getting crushed under mounds of earth. It was hell.’’

Standing next to him is another officer, Major Rajesh R of 56 Rashtriya Rifles. ‘‘The mountains began to move and there was a storm of dust. For half hour, I could see nothing, not even the man next to me,’’ he recalls. ‘‘We don’t think of anything now. We are just thankful that the earth beneath our feet is not moving.’’

Captain Alok had another close shave when he went on an impossible trek to reach his colleagues trapped beneath the rubble in Kaman Post that stands right next to the Aman Setu. ‘‘There were landslides everywhere as I walked. But I had to go and see my boys,’’ he says. ‘‘Kaman Post is in shambles. Everything is shambles.’’

He doesn’t talk of how many of his men have perished there but he constantly mentions Shabir, a local porter, who was buried alive near the post. ‘‘I have no words to console his (Shabir’s) mother. She came twice looking for her son,’’ he says. ‘‘She can’t believe her son is dead and I don’t know how to tell her.’’ The troops call Capt. Alok as the ‘‘Tiger of Kaman’’—he was the one who walked to the post as the rocks rained around him.

‘‘The post of 1/9 GR (Garhwal Rifles) came down in front of my eyes,’’ he recalls, looking ahead where the bodies of Border Road labourers are still being dug out.

Terror hit, many militants gone: Separatists, Army

SRINAGAR, OCTOBER 11: A large number of militants, who had crossed over to Muzaffarabad in the early 90s, have perished in the earthquake. At least, that’s what reports received from PoK by Kashmiri separatist leaders indicate.

While Army General J J Singh said here today that the terror infrastructure in Pakistan has been damaged, Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said: ‘‘This morning, I got a call from one of our men in Muzaffarabad who was sobbing inconsolably. He said most of his colleagues from Kashmir had died in the quake and that he was now alone... Their number is about 30.’’

Most of them, Mirwaiz added, had settled in Muzaffarabad and had families there. ‘‘They met me on my recent visit there (Muzaffarabad),’’ he said.

Masarat Alam, close aide of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the chief of Hurriyat’s breakaway hardline faction, admitted that they had received similar reports. ‘‘But the breakdown of communication links is making it difficult to confirm it,’’ he added.

Senior JKLF leader Ghulam Rasool Idi said there were unconfirmed reports of the death of two of their former commanders. What’s confirmed though, said Mirwaiz, is ‘‘the death of about 200 refugees (who crossed over in the 90s) in Muzaffarabad.’’

The Hurriyat chief said that three major refugee camps—Kantsar, Magday and Manak Taya with a combined population of 400—have been wiped out. ‘‘They (camps) were on the banks of Neelam and Jhelum rivers and were driven down to the river when the quake struck,’’ he said.

However, top militant leaders like Hizbul supremo Syed Salahudin and Al-Umar Mujahideen chief commander Mushtaq Zargar are believed to be safe.

In Delhi, General J J Singh said: ‘‘The worst affected areas is the one that had terrorist camps in Muzaffarabad and nearby areas. When the entire villages have been wiped out, it is possible that these terrorist camps have also been affected.’’

Muzaffarabad as well as areas in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan is believed to house training camps of militant outfits like Jaish-E-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Tehrek-ul-Mujahideen (TuM), Hizbul Mujahideen and Al-Badar.

Wireless messages of TuM, intercepted by security agencies last evening, said the outfit’s building near Muzaffarabad had been damaged with some ‘‘boys (militants) buried under it.’’

Sources said the LeT’s office and hospital in Muzaffarabad have been destroyed. The Harkat-ul-Mujahideen’s training centres at Balakot and Batrasi, Jaish’s camp at Attock, Al-Badar’s set-up at Oghi, LeT’s camp at Manshera and the recruitment camps of Hizbul have been damaged to a great extent.

‘In J-K, politics of relief, this time for good’

• Tents are not readily available. We have conducted a survey across the country and we have been told that only 200 tents can be manufactured in a day. I had requested the Punjab and Haryana Chief Ministers to send tents and we received these tents on Monday.
Urban Development Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad

• I was with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today. I visited Uri and Tangdhar and talked to people there. I talked to Prime Minister about waiver of loans of people there and he promised me that he will take up the matter with the Reserve Bank of India. Not only PDP workers but also our councillors are pitching in in the quake-hit areas to bring some comfort to the people. Our focus is also on the less-known affected areas in Budgam district and Srinagar.
Mehbooba Mufti, President People’s Democratic Party

• Today I talked to foreign minister about the need to bring back passengers of the recent Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus, one of whom has died in the quake. I also held meetings with the leading business houses and the multinationals in India and asked them to generate relief for the affected people.
Omar Abdullah, President of National Conference

• Aid to the quake victims has become highly politicised in Kashmir. But for once, in a constructive sense. Almost all political parties, separatist and mainstream, are trying to beat each other in rushing relief, however little, to the different quake-hit villages and claim credit for it. In fact, former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and his son and National Conference president Omar Abdullah were the first to start it when they visited Uri a few hours after the calamity struck on Saturday morning. Even before Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed. Ever since, Uri has witnessed the beeline of separatist and pro-India leaders with their workers pitching in with the relief effort. Today was also hectic. The leaders across the spectrum were busy collecting and rushing aid and firming up plans to depart for another but distant Tangdhar, the Valley’s other address of horror.
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of moderate Hurriyat

• The Hurriyat chairman led a mass funeral prayer at Grand Mosque for the people killed in earthquake on the two sides of the border. It was a gathering of about 2000. The Hurriyat has also set up three relief collection centres at its Rajbagh headquarters, Grand Mosque and Mujaihid Manzil. Our team is already working in Uri. The relief collected at the centres is rushed to the quake victims daily. Mirwaiz will leave for Tangdhar on Wednesday with some aid trucks.
Syed Ali Geelani, chairman of hardline Hurriyat

• JKLF chief Yaseen Malik has been camping in Uri for the past three days, supervising relief distribution personally. We send two trucks daily, containing blankets, sweaters, rice, flour, spices, edible oil and sugar. We’ve been to remote villages.
JKLF spokesperson Ghulam Rasool Idi


Kids die in chill, parents say give us sweaters, not food
URI, TANGDHAR, NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 11: Tonight is the third consecutive night under an open sky and Dardkote has lost another child to the rain and the cold. This takes the toll of children killed by the night chill to seven across the quake-hit villages here. Everyone here is afraid that number will rise given that the season’s first snow has begun to fall.

According to the Met forecast for the next 72 hours for Baramulla and Badgam districts, the rain will continue. Both the minimum and maximum temperatures are going to fall by nearly a degree each day. Minimum temperatures are already touching 7 degrees Celsius and are expected to fall further.

This is because of a western disturbance over Pakistan and although the low pressure area is weakening, it is likely to impact the area for the next few days.

So parents desperately want just one thing: tents for shelter and warm clothes, sweaters, for their shivering children.

‘‘We have enough food to last for a few days thanks to the Army and the young men who came from around Kashmir with food,’’ says Mohammad Eliyas, Dardkote’s numbardar (village head). ‘‘We only need something to hide from this rain and chill. We want to save our children. Can you please tell people that we need tents, anything that helps us erect a shelter.’’

A group of volunteer doctors who have come here say that the chill is the biggest threat. ‘‘I have seen a few children today and they are suffering from hypothermia. The villagers have no way to keep them warm,’’ says Dr Khursheed. ‘‘And we have no advice other than to keep the children warm.’’

‘‘I want a tent and nothing else,’’ is the chorus of a group of villagers as volunteers distribute relief. ‘‘We will eat little but our children can’t sleep in the open.’’

In Tangdhar, too, it’s snowing. For 42000 victims, the government’s relief so far: 9000 blankets, 900 tents, 640 match boxes and 400 foodpackets. For the 15 inaccessible villages—Teetwal, Gundi Sayid, Gundi Shot, Ibkote, Badrakote, Chotta Gawan, Murchan—even this is yet to come.

‘‘We need 10000 tents,’’ says Abdul Majid Khanday, Kupwara Deputy Commissioner.

It is raining heavily in all the villages, the temperature’s dipping. ‘‘We will all die if this rainfall continues,’’ says Ghulam Mohammad, a survivor of Tad village. Groups of villagers have set up a makeshift tent to accommodate women and children while the men and the cattle sleep in the open. The rain is already hampering relief work given the treacherous terrain and the loose earth.

Almost 50.33 mm of rain is expected in Baramulla for the next seven days. For tomorrow and the day after, 17 mm and 15mm is expected. With the monsoon having withdrawn from this area on town, this is officially the onset of winter.