PAKISTAN: 38,000 Dead and 3.3 Million Homeless

:::Al-Manar Television:::

Prayers this morning had a very special meaning for Pakistanis. People in the capital Islamabad converged to the largest mosque in the country at dawn, to mark the exact time the massive quake struck a week ago.

People have hoped that during this holy fasting month of Ramadan, their prayers will be answered. President Pervez Musharraf was there too. He had made appeals two days ago for the nation to pray for the 38,000 people killed and 3.3 million homeless in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.

The situation is getting worse with time as the bitter winter nears. So rescue searches for survivors stopped and bulldozers began to raze the rubble with many dead bodies beneath. The priority now is to bring aid the survivors. But heavy rain and clouds halted air operations. Roads turned to mud, and snow on the highlands isolated even more dozens of remote villages that are already cut off from supply. Whole mountainsides have been shorn away taking everything in their path. Kashmir now seems a ground zero.

Rob Holden, UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team Leader said: "We've been expecting it - it's now been raining for the last two hours. Some of the areas are starting to flood; our helicopters are not flying at the moment. We're in a high mountainous region, it's very hazardous, and people are out in the open. You and I know we're stood here, it's getting cold, we're getting wet, we can go to a tent in a moment, and the people out in these villages cannot."

The rain not only hampered aid supplies, but also the evacuation of the wounded, by helicopters. Many of whom had been waiting for days with gangrenous wounds, and could die of hypothermia.
Doctors in the main hospital in Islamabad are tending too many incoming wounded, far than they can take, but have no other choice.

Dr. Sayyed Fazel Hadi, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences
"As you can see, we have literally hundreds and hundreds of patients who are really seriously injured. Over the last 24 hours alone we have operated 177 patients' major operations, 177 major operations. We have carried out seven to eighth hundred major operations since the disaster started."
Dr. Khalid Awan had no time to mourn his wife who was killed in the earthquake in Muzaffarabad. He just buried her in the collapsed district courthouse where she worked as a judge sent his two sons to live with their grandparents in Islamabad, and then took off to help the survivors. He opened a makeshift medical camp on a rocky field near his own ruined home to help wounded survivors.

Awan added that "... Just, it was the feeling of helplessness of the people, of me that these people are just dying in front of me, and if I can do something, I must do something at that time. And then I...perhaps...I don't know where I found that strength."

But if Dr. Awan was able to overpass the trauma, many others are still in shock. All they want now is to leave the area and head to Islamabad. Not much relief would be waiting for them in the capital which was rattled by a 5.0-magnitude aftershock midnight Saturday, but at least they would not have to face the scenes of dead and devastation in their own villages.