AWARAN, Sept 26: Militants in Balochistan fired at two helicopters carrying federal ministers and the chief of National Disaster Management Authority in Mashkay on Thursday, prompting the government to urge the fighters not to target relief workers as they were a lifeline for thousands of people in distress.

Rescue teams, too, faced difficulties due to threats while tens of thousands of survivors of Tuesday’s earthquake waited for help in soaring temperatures and anger grew at the slow pace of government aid.

Officials said the confirmed dead toll in Awaran and Kech had soared to 357 and 520 people had been injured.

The helicopters that came under attack were carrying the federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions, retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural resources Jam Kamal Khan and NDMA Chairman Maj Gen Muhammad Saeed Aleem.

Talking to reporters, Gen Baloch said militants fired at his helicopter when he was flying over Mashkay area to visit the earthquake-hit areas of Awaran along with Mr Kamal.

“The bullets passed very close to the helicopters. However, we escaped the attempt on our lives and landed at the destination safely,” he said.

He said he had been in the affected areas of Awaran and Kech for the past two days on instructions of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The minister said the earthquake had played havoc in Mashkay, where 200 people died after the roofs and walls of their homes collapsed on them.

Other badly affected areas of Awaran included Mallar, Gashkor and Tarteej.

He said he had received reports of death of about 400 people in Awaran and Kech.

Gen Baloch said three battalions of the Pakistan Army had been moved immediately to the affected areas because the local administration could not cope with the calamity.

“Massive destruction has taken place in the area, 60 to 80 per cent houses have collapsed or been badly damaged and thousands of people are sitting in the open in scorching heat,” he said. Only the army had the capability to carryout rescue and relief work on a large scale, Abdul Qadir Baloch added.

He said the militants should avoid attacking rescue teams and putting hurdles in relief work.

He said militant leader Allah Nazar should realise that the army and Frontier Corps troops had gone to the area to help those devastated by the earthquake.

“I would like to ask militant leader Allah Nazar and his men to join the rescue and relief operation in order to ease the pain of people whose loved ones have died or been injured.”

He said the most urgent need of the affected people was tents, followed by food and medical aid.

Talking to a team of reporters who arrived here from Quetta, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 33rd Division, Maj Gen Mohammad Samrez Salik, said rescue teams were facing law and order issues and militants were putting hurdles in relief work, but the army teams would continue their work.

Three army battalions had reached Awaran and Kech on Wednesday night from the Quetta, Khuzdar and Karachi cantonments and started their work in the earthquake-affected areas.

“It was the army that ensured holding of the general elections in Awaran and other districts despite the poor law and order situation created by the militant organisations” and the troops would not leave their Baloch brethren and sisters alone in this time of difficulty and tragedy,” Gen Salik said.

Official sources told Dawn that the earthquake had rendered about 21,000 families homeless in the two districts.

They said an area spread over 40,000 square kilometres had been affected and the communications system, especially roads, had been badly damaged.

“We are facing difficulties in transporting relief goods to the affected areas because of destruction of roads and the law and order situation as militants pose a threat to the rescue teams and the vehicles taking the relief items to Awaran and Kech,” they said.

They said that while 60 doctors and paramedics had been attending to the injured in the affected area and those having suffered severe injuries were being taken to hospitals in Uthal, Hub, Khuzdar and Karachi, army doctors and paramedics were also serving the quake survivors.

A field hospital has been set up in Awaran and 29 trucks loaded with relief goods, including medicines, were sent from Quetta on Thursday.

The officials said relief goods provided by the Punjab government would reach Uthal on Friday.

The Balochistan government’s spokesman Mir Jan Mohammad Buledi also appealed to militants not to attack and threaten the rescue teams.

“About 300,000 people of Kech and Awaran have been affected by the earthquake and they will face starvation if the rescue and relief work is hampered,” he said.

“We appeal to militants present in the area to allow the rescue teams to reach the affected people to provide them emergency medical aid, food, water and tents because thousands of homeless people immediately need shelter, food and water,” he said.

He said the goals of the rescue operation in Awaran might be achieved if militants did not launch attacks and hurled threats at the visiting teams.

The spokesman expressed hope that the militants would respond positively to the government’s appeal.

He said the Balochistan government has decided that relief goods would also be transported from Karachi as it is near to Awaran than Quetta.

According to AFP, around 200 angry survivors demonstrated outside government offices in Awaran, complaining they had not been given food or shelter.

Temperatures in the arid region were hovering around 42 degrees Celsius.

According to AP, a protester said: “The people who survived the earthquake are dying now because they have no food or water.”

Masrullah, a resident of Labach village, near Awaran, said the militants had warned that aid workers should not travel with army or government officials. The militants had also given out relief supplies in the village, he said. Earlier this week, militants fired on troops escorting doctors helping out with the quake effort. No one was hurt.

In Awaran, FC personnel patrolled the streets and the few people driving from Karachi passed through numerous security checkpoints.

A doctor at the main local hospital said they didn’t have an X-ray machine or a laboratory to treat the more than 400 patients who had been brought there since Tuesday. The supply of antibiotics and other medicines was low, said Dr Ameer Buksh, in charge of the facility. He said the hospital had only two ambulances. The Edhi Foundation had donated eight ambulances, he said.

Meanwhile, more than 100,000 homeless people spent a second night in the open or under makeshift shelters.

About the attack in Awaran, a military official in Quetta told AFP that two rockets had been fired at a helicopter.

Hours later, paramilitary troops taking part in the relief effort were fired at with small arms by suspected rebels, around 20km north of Awaran, but there were no casualties, a security official said.

An AFP reporter saw activists of the Balochistan National Movement helping in the relief effort along with the banned Jamaatud Dawa.