Thousands of Pakistanis affected by Iran quake
18 April, 2013
MASHKAIL: Thousands of Pakistanis have been affected by a huge earthquake in Iran that damaged hundreds of homes and killed at least 41 people, sparking a military rescue effort in the remote region.
The United States also offered aid after the 7.8-magnitude quake, Iran's most powerful in five decades, damaged an estimated 2,000 mud-built homes of Mashkail, a town in Balochistan.
Tuesday's earthquake was felt across the region and though the epicentre lay in southeast Iran, all but one of the deaths reported so far have been across the border in Pakistan.
Efforts to help the survivors have been hampered by Mashkail's remote location – communities are scattered, there are no paved roads, no electricity and limited mobile phone coverage, and no proper medical facilities.
Only three tents were visible in the town and frightened families prepared to spend a second night out in the open, sheltering under trees, an AFP reporter said, too scared to return to their homes for fear of aftershocks.
A 5.7-magnitude tremor early on Wednesday frayed nerves even further. The National Disaster Management Authority said 105 injured people had been treated.
Esa Tahir, a local coordinator for the charity Islamic Relief, said that after surveying two local councils in Mashkail, 5,000 people have been affected and around 2,000 mud homes damaged or destroyed, along with 150 shops.
At least five government buildings, including administrative and revenue offices, a school and a hospital, were also damaged, an AFP reporter said.
Eight injured people, including four young children from the same family, were waiting for a helicopter to fly them to Quetta.
A helicopter came but could not land due to a dust storm, a military officer said, adding that they would be evacuated today (Thursday).
Some 15 to 20 people made the bone-shaking, 45-minute journey across bare ground to the Iranian border to reach a hospital and see a doctor, according to Frontier Constabulary officials.
While some survivors offered prayers for the dead, others dug through rubble with spades and even knives to try to recover their belongings. "We often feel tremors here, but this was the worst I've ever seen in my life. I thought a bulldozer was passing by close to my house," Abdul Ghaffour, who is about 50, told AFP. "Thank God my family and I are safe."
Major General Obaidullah Khattak of the Frontier Corps, another paramilitary force, said 16 badly injured people had been taken by helicopter to Quetta for treatment and nine doctors were on the scene.
The area's scattered population made determining the death toll difficult, but Frontier Corps' Major Attiq Minhas told AFP at Dalbandin airport that at least 40 people had died.
On the Iranian side of the border, one woman was reported killed by falling rocks and the Red Crescent rushed 400 tents to shelter some 1,700 people who lost their homes in the quake.
Putting aside America's longstanding enmity with Iran, and its more recent strains in relations with Pakistan, US Secretary of State John Kerry offered condolences and assistance with relief work.
Disaster relief contributed to an earlier thaw in relations between the United States and Iran, which accepted US personnel following the Bam earthquake in 2003, which killed more than 26,000 people. The United States has also engaged in disaster diplomacy with Pakistan, briefly improving its abysmal image in the country following a 2005 earthquake in Kashmir, where more than 73,000 died.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon also expressed condolences after Tuesday's disaster and said the UN too stood ready to help if needed.
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