Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Shaukat Sultan said on Tuesday that Pakistan Army wasted no time in coming forward to rescue earthquake-hit people in Azad Kashmir and NWFP.
The earthquake occurred at 8.52 am, and the army helicopters were on route at their mission by 9.30 am, he said, while speaking at morning transmission of PTV.
He said by 1pm the army helicopters were back in Rawalpindi and Islamabad with injured and full details of damages in the affected areas, adding the army present in AJK was badly affected by the quake with several deaths and injuries besides infrastructure damage.
He said usually the troops deployment in Muzaffarabad is very low. As the city witnessed a doomsday-like situation the existing strength of army also shared the fate of civilian population.
Two sons of the Muzaffarabad Brigade Commander were seriously injured while he himself got injuries, Shaukat Sultan said.
He said the troops from other areas were also unable to move because of road blockage, adding they, however, began the rescue and relief activities in their surrounding areas along with civil population.
To a question, the ISPR DG said the organised rescue work in Muzaffarabad commenced within 24 hours of the disaster and a Turkish team also arrived in the area by this time.
He said the Chief of the Army Staff has taken the aerial view of the whole affected area by 4.00 pm on October 8 and in the evening he briefed President General Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, and Foreign Minister Mahmud Kasuri about the situation.
A high-level meeting was held in the same evening wherein the decision was made to move troops to the affected areas from Mangla, Kharian, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Lahore, he said.
Major General Shaukat Sultan said that urgent attention was paid to restoration of damaged roads in the areas and the army engineers jumped in field without any delay. While denying the impression that relief goods are being dumped at certain places, he said only the excessive stock of certain commodities is being reserved for use at an appropriate time.
He said, at present, there is some surplus stock of certain relief items at base camps at urban locations which the local population do not require. Such items are either shifted to forward place where they are urgently needed or being reserved, he added.
If anybody has any evidence about the dumping of relief goods by any government functionary, he should inform the concerned authorities, Sultan said, adding immediate action would be taken.
He said the material being distributed under the supervision of Pakistan Army would reach the deserving in a transparent way. However, some NGOs and political parties are involved in indigenous relief activities and the government has nothing to do with their affairs, he added.
To a question, the ISPR DG said the reconstruction of damaged houses alone may cost $5 billion in the affected areas while the restoration of other infrastructure such as roads, schools, hospitals, etc is also a huge task.
The sustained assistance of international community is, therefore, required to fully restore the life activities in disaster-hit areas, Major General Shaukat Sultan added.
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