ISLAMABAD, Oct 22: The Federal Relief Commission has no data of people missing after the October 8 earthquake, Chief Relief Commissioner Maj-Gen Farooq Ahmed Khan said on Saturday.

He told a press briefing that the death toll had risen to over 53,000 and the number of injured people had soared to above 75,000. “When I say injured people, it means seriously injured people,” he added.

He said it had been decided not to allow shifting of injured people out of Rawalpindi and Islamabad without registration with the National Database Registration Authority and health ministry.

He said some seriously injured people had been sent abroad for treatment but he is not in a position to tell their exact number. He added that ‘if needed,’ more injured people would be sent abroad.

He said main focus of relief efforts had been diverted to provision of medical aid to those injured and 19 field hospitals were working round the clock in the affected areas. “These include seven in Muzaffarabad, two each in Garhi Dupatta, Rawla Kot, Mansehra and Balakot and one each in Bagh, Garhi Habibullah, Batagram, and Basham.”

Beside this, he said, medical teams had been deployed in the forward areas to provide treatment to the needy.

He said that only there team were currently engaged in rescue operation.

He said donor agencies had pledged to enhance assistance in relief efforts in the quake-affected areas in Azad Kashmir and the NWFP.

He said a call centre had been set up in Prime Minister’s Secretariat to guide the donors, NGOs and volunteers in carrying out the relief operation in a coordinated way.

Maj-Gen Farooq said 261 sorties were made on Friday to supply relief items to the affected areas and shift injured people to hospitals.

He said 44,000 tents and 329,000 blankets had so for been distributed among the affected people and over 7,000 tons of food stuff, 4,000 tons of medicines and 2,000 tons of other items of daily use had been provided to quake-hit people.

He said efforts were underway to clear roads in the affected areas to speed up the supplies to the victims. He said the major roads and 50 per cent of internal roads had been reopened.

Answering a question, the federal relief commissioner said 38 to 45 Pakistani helicopters and 24 others from foreign countries were engaged in relief operation. “The United States and other countries have offered to send more helicopters.”

Answering another question, he said a number of tent villages had been set up and many more would follow. He, however, said as people were not ready to leave their areas, they were trying to reach out to them with relief goods through helicopters.

Answering yet another question, he said Nato had offered to airlift goods to Pakistan from its member states. “It has pledged to bring 10,000 tents from Turkey for the UNHCR through 19 flights,” he added.