IRIN
PAKISTAN: Emergency operation under way in
  landslide-hit Kashmiri village
22 March 2007


ISLAMABAD, 22 March 2007 (IRIN) - At least six bodies were recovered 
from rubble in a landslide-hit village of Pakistani-administered Kashmir 
on Thursday, while Pakistani soldiers and local villagers continued 
their search for another 20 missing people, aid officials said.

A four-day long spell of torrential rains and snow, which stopped late 
on Wednesday, triggered landslides that hit mountainous hamlets and 
blocked already hard to access roads across the region - which was 
devastated by a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake in October 2005.

However, better weather on Thursday allowed helicopters to fly to the 
landslide-hit Doba Syedan village in the Jhelum Valley and evacuate 
about 14 injured people, including eight women and two girls. They were 
taken to hospitals in the regional capital, Muzaffarabad, said John 
Sampsom, head of the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) 
sub-office in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

The death toll caused by recent landslides in quake-affected 
Pakistani-administered Kashmir rose to 46 on Thursday.

On Thursday, three helicopters participated in emergency operations - 
one each from the Pakistan army, the international Aga Khan Development 
Network charity and the United States Agency for International 
Development (USAID). They brought tents, food and medicines to about 350 
stranded families in Doba Syedan, which is more than 1,500 metres above 
sea level.

An IOM Rapid Response Team has also been despatched to the calamity-hit 
village to carry out a detailed assessment of the needs of the stranded 
families and evaluate options for their evacuation and further 
assistance.

"The landslide survivors have been moved to a relatively safe place, but 
still that slide is moving and we need to have a detailed evaluation of 
whether they need to be evacuated, and if so, when and how," IOM's 
Sampson said.

Preparations are underway to prepare a makeshift settlement at Hattian 
Bala, in case the Doba Syedan villagers needed to be evacuated, 
according to aid officials.

Access to landslide-hit villages remains almost impossible by land. Road 
authorities and army engineers have been working to unblock roads.

World Food Programme trucks carrying the first batch of food and 
non-food relief items for 50 families in Doba Syedan are waiting for 
roads to be cleared.

"As things stand at the moment, it seems we'll be able to transport 
relief supplies only by tomorrow afternoon, provided the roads are 
cleared then," Amjad Jamal, a WFP spokesman, told IRIN in Islamabad.

According to Pakistan's Meteorological Department, another rain spell 
could hit the region some time next week.

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