A major earthquake hit Pakistan and its neighbouring countries Saturday morning, killing more than 20,000 people and leaving tens of thousands injured.

|PIC1|“This was the strongest earthquake in the area during the last hundred years,” said Qamar Uz Zamen, director-general of the Pakistani Meteorological Department, according to CNN.

As of Sunday, an estimated 20,000 people have been killed and 41,188 people injured after the 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit Pakistan, parts of India and Afghanistan at 8:50 a.m. on Saturday. While some sources claim the death toll to be as high as 30,000, the figures have not yet been confirmed.

“The situation is desperate, several villages have been decimated,” said Sigurd Hanson, World Vision director in Pakistan, in a released statement. “The people I’ve spoken to have asked World Vision for relief supplies and burial cloths, saying, ‘We know you. Can you help us bury our dead?”

Hit hardest by the massive quake was the Kashmir region of Pakistan, which accounted for the greatest number of deaths. Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan’s chief army spokesperson said that out of Saturday’s estimated death toll of about 18,000, around 17,000 were from Pakistani Kasmir, according to the Associate Press (AP).

Elsewhere, the quake resulted in entire villages being flattened, high rise buildings collapsing, landslides, and “caused buildings to sway for about a minute in the capitals of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, an area some 625 miles across,” AP reported.

In Pakistan alone, at least 19,136 people have died and 41,000 injured, said Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao.

|QUOTE|However, Brig. Shah Jahan, a military spokesman for the Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, noted that current figures are only estimated from areas visited by rescue and relief workers. They do not take into account 30-40 percent of the affected areas that have yet to be accessed.

"It’s difficult to find out what’s happening in the first hours of an emergency,” said Robin Greenwood, who leads Christian Aid in Asia, “but our staff on the ground are rapidly assessing the situation."

According to Christian Aid’s report, Greenwood said that when it is clear what areas had been affected and which of its partner organisations on the ground were best placed to help, it is likely that funds would be immediately transferred to get the relief effort underway.

Greenwood was also quoted as saying that in one of the areas affected by the earthquake "there are further complications.”

“Southeast Afghanistan is a conflict zone,” the Christian Aid head stated. “U.S. forces are fighting Al Qaeda and Kashmir is an area in dispute, tension and military activity between Pakistani and Indian forces."

"It is vital that in both these areas that relief work takes precedence over conflict," Greenwood said.

|TOP|On Sunday, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf issued a plea for foreign aid – specifically, cargo helicopters and relief goods such as tents and blankets, according to CNN. So far Britain, Germany, Turkey, Japan, the US and the United Nations and nongovernmental organisations (NGO’s) have offered relief aid.

Christian groups, such as Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan (CWS P/A), have also responded to the call with assistance to 1,600 families in North West Frontier Province and Azad Kashmir already on its way.

As a member of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, CWS-P/A is working closely with international and local organisations and authorities and has been organising relief efforts from its offices in Karachi, Islamabad, Mansehra and Murree to address immediate needs of people affected by the quake. Three teams are currently assessing needs and determining what longer-terms response may be needed.

World Vision, one of the largest Christian relief and development organisations in the world, is also sending assessment teams to three of the most severely damaged areas of Pakistan affected by Saturday’s earthquake.

Working along side other humanitarian organisations, the World Vision teams will be conducting assessments in Mansehra, Kashmir and the Shangla and Kohistan districts, said World Vision’s director in Pakistan.

World Vision has been working with local communities in northern Pakistan for two years in response to a series of natural disasters, including flooding, severe snowstorms and landslides.

As with similar disasters, the immediate needs for survivors include blankets, food, water and medicines, the organisation reported.







Michelle Vu
Christian Today Correspondent