PESHAWAR: Over 500 persons were killed, about 1,000 were injured and hundreds were missing in villages Pattan and Jalal, in Swat district, as a result of last evening’s [Dec 28] severe earthquake which rocked Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Abbottabad. A major portion of the Karakoram Highway has been damaged ... disrupting communications in the entire mountainous region, and Gilgit and Baltistan have been cut [off] from the rest of the country. ... Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has sanctioned Rs 10 lakh for the immediate relief of the earthquake victims, it was officially learnt today. The Prime Minister also directed the Federal and NWFP Governments to organise and co-ordinate relief measures to provide succour to the victims of the disaster.

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Kuwait,] the Shahanshah of Iran said in an interview ... [the] Gulf States were welcome to create a military alliance if they could, but he doubted if it would be in competition with Iran. ... When asked what would happen if such an alliance was created ... [he said]: “Competition for what? We don’t want your (Arab) land and you don’t want ours. You are rich and we are also rich.”

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2024