Quake toll 300 in held Kashmir

Published October 9, 2005

URI (India), Oct 8: More than 300 people were killed in held Kashmir on Saturday after a major earthquake damaged hundreds of houses and triggered landslides that buried huts and blocked highways, authorities said.

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.6, struck at 0350 GMT (0850am PST) and was centred about 95km northeast of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, near the mountainous.

“The earthquake has taken a toll of more than 300 people, including civilians and soliders,” a spokesman said after an emergency cabinet meeting attended by PM Manmohan Singh.

The border areas of Uri, Kupwara and Baramulla in Kashmir were the worst hit, with many mud and stone houses buried under landslides and others developing cracks in their walls, authorities and witnesses said.

Uri, the last big town on the highway connecting the two sides of Kashmir, and its nearby areas accounted for about 130 of the deaths, authorities said.

It resembled a ghost town with flattened houses and no electricity. Scores of people sat in leaky tents, shivering in drizzle, with occasional lightning revealing crumbled houses across the town of 25,000 people.

Baramulla police superintendent Ashkoor Wani said the death toll could rise as many villages were cut off by landslides, adding: “Many bodies could be trapped under the debris”.

The landslides also blocked a key 300-km highway that connects Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, to the rest of India to the south.

The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road linking Indian and Pakistani Kashmir — reopened earlier this year to traffic for the first time in nearly 60 years — was also blocked.

In Baramulla, a large town on the same highway, several injured people, their heads bandaged, sat dazed in front of their houses and by the side of streets amid a steady drizzle. Many houses had collapsed and narrow alleys were blocked by rubble.

Residents complained that they were yet to get any help from the government, hours after the quake struck.—Reuters

Opinion

Editorial

Taliban divisions
Updated 24 Feb, 2025

Taliban divisions

The only workable solution lies in Mullah Akhundzada loosening his iron grip on the country.
Oblivious to drought
24 Feb, 2025

Oblivious to drought

PAKISTAN faces two types of drought: one caused by dry weather or lower-than-normal rainfall, and the other ...
Digital children
24 Feb, 2025

Digital children

AS most parents with young children will agree, the easiest way to pacify a bawling child is to hand them a...
The long wait
Updated 23 Feb, 2025

The long wait

Pakistan’s fundamental problem is that two of its most important leaders still cannot get over themselves.
Defending freedom
23 Feb, 2025

Defending freedom

THERE was no other choice. Despite assurances of consultations with key stakeholders, the government passed the Peca...
Anti-Muslim crimes
23 Feb, 2025

Anti-Muslim crimes

THE surge in Islamophobic assaults in the UK, as reported by the anti-hate crime charity Tell MAMA, is a stark...