Dr Shahed Uddin was halfway through an operation when he felt it. A low, growling noise rose from the earth, followed by an ominous vibration at his feet. Another tremor. The medic, who was kneeling on the side of a mountain road, froze. So did his patient, a 13-year-old girl with a severe wound, who had been moaning with pain. Both glanced anxiously at a cluster of rocks perched on a ledge about 100m overhead.
An instant later the shaking stopped, the rocks didn’t move and Uddin resumed his roadside surgery, one of about 200 operations he had performed over three days.
”Everyone is a little frightened around here,” he said before packing his rucksack. ”But what can we do? In the end, it is God who decides.”
The aftershock was one of several that rocked Pakistan’s quake zone on Friday morning, exacerbating the difficulties faced by a large, complex and difficult aid operation.
A tremor at 2am, which measured 5,3 on the magnitude scale, caused alarmed residents of Muzaffarabad to run into the streets. The aftershocks, which geologists say could continue for months or even years, are just one of many miseries for victims of Saturday’s hellish quake.
International rescue teams started to leave on Friday as the chances of pulling more survivors from the rubble dwindled. Meteorologists predict thunderstorms and a sharp drop in temperatures in the coming days. The worsening weather will increase concerns about how an estimated two million homeless people will survive northern Pakistan’s harsh winter, which starts in two weeks. A shortage of tents is a major concern.
Pakistan’s federal relief commissioner, Major General Farooq Ahmad Khan, said he needs 100 000 tents and two million blankets for refugee villages the government plans to build around Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
”All tents have been bought and all factories are running round the clock,” he said.
Dozens of countries have pledged money and help. On Friday, Japan sent 100 troops and two military transport planes. But the main worry is how to get the assistance to villages that are still isolated by giant landslides.
”It’s a nightmare trying to reach community after community which are homeless, roofless, without food, without water. It is this race against time I fear we are now losing,” said United Nations emergency coordinator Jan Egeland.
In many remote areas, the only help comes from self-starting rescue teams like Uddin’s. The doctor, three assistants and 12 porters had been trekking through the Sibi Valley for three days, he said.
On Friday, he continued up the valley, picking his way around boulders and perilous landslides that blocked the badly damaged road.
”We are here because these are our Muslim brothers and sisters,” he said. Despite the difficulties, he was still observing the Ramadan fast.
During the morning, dozens of badly injured quake victims were stretchered down the Sibi Valley. Relatives shouldered them across landslides and along a riverbank. Distress and exhaustion were etched on their faces.
Muhammad Meskin agonised for days as he watched his wounded daughter suffer without medical help.
”We had only painkillers to give her, but the way down was blocked by a landslide. It was really awful,” he said.
Several people urged reporters to climb up to their isolated villages.
”Please go back and see it for yourself. At least 400 people have died, maybe 200 are still under the rubble. And still nobody has come,” said Ghulab Yusuf of Baso village.
But only a few kilometres downstream there was a surfeit of food. Pakistani soldiers distributed food and clothes and registered households for tents. Private groups also handed out assistance, although there was a serious lack of coordination. Some also lacked sensitivity, such as the young men who tossed packets of milk and biscuits as they sped past in trucks.
”They are making fools of us,” fumed Muhammad Amjad. ”It’s like they are throwing meat to a dog.”
In Islamabad, police began an investigation into the collapse of a 10-storey building in which at least 40 people died. It was the only structure that collapsed in the capital. — Guardian Unlimited Â