CHITRAL: The district administration has constituted 10 teams for assessment of damage in the Monday’s earthquake, as death toll reached 31 in Chitral district. Also, three of the total 165 injured were taken to Peshawar by army helicopters on Tuesday.

Deputy Commissioner Osama Ahmed said that 10 teams had been formed for assessment of the number of damaged houses. He said that the approach road to Lowari tunnel had been opened to traffic to keep the district connected with rest of rest of the country. He said that heavy debris had been removed to open the Chitral-Booni road at Kuragh.

Mr Ahmed said that following a request the Aga Khan Foundation’s helicopter took seven seriously injured persons from Laspur valley to the hospitals in Booni and Chitral.

Talking to Dawn, DPO Abbas Majeed claimed that 493 houses were damaged completely and 993 partially in the district, adding that Arandu was the worst-hit area. Meanwhile, the affected people in different remote villages of the district complained that they were yet to receive any aid package from the government.

Inayatullah Baig, a resident of Charun Oveer, an isolated village in upper Chitral, said that his village consisted of 135 households, of which 70 had been damaged completely and the women and children were taking shelter in a worship place. He said that men of the affected families were living under open sky without any food.

One Mohammad Imran from Aryan Drosh complained of non-delivery from the administration and said that no food package or tent was delivered in his village where most of the people passed their night in the open as their houses were damaged by the earthquake.

Isa Ali, a councillor from Parwak village, said that seven houses of the village were destroyed, but no tent or food package was delivered to them so far.

Corps commander, Peshawar, Lt-Gen Hidyatur Rehman visited a number of affected villages and the injured at the DHQ hospital on Tuesday. Meanwhile, NGOs, including Al-Khidmat Foundation, Falah Insaniat Foundation and Focus Humanitarian Assistance, are engaged in helping the affected people in Chitral town. The earthquake has also affected two water supply schemes of Golen and Chitral city, as the falling boulders damaged the pipelines.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2015

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