11 Oct 2005

Quake In Pakistan : The Sequel
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, India
Supplied note: "The latest paper of the Institute For Topical Studies, A-2/3, Bharathi Dasan Colony, K.K.Nagar, Chennai---600078, India, on the above subject is now available at the web site of the South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG), New Delhi, at [the URL below] - br."
Extract: "The Government and the people of Pakistan have been coping, as best as they can, with the help of a flood of international assistance, with the colossal tragedy which struck them on October 8, 2005, in the form of a massive earthquake which has devastated practically the whole of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and large parts of the district of Manshera and other areas in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). [...] 2. The total fatalities in POK are officially estimated at 20,000 plus and unofficially at 30,000 plus. Those in the NWFP at 3,000 plus and unofficially at 8,000 plus. [...] No estimate is available of the damages suffered by the[..] terrorist organisations as a result of the quake. Many foreign nationals from Indonesia, Thailand, the US, the UK and other countries were reportedly undergoing training in the camps in the Manshera district. Only the LET has so far admitted that its infrastructure in the POK has been severely damaged. A spokesman for the Jamat-ud-Dawa, the political wing of the LET, admitted at Islamabad on October 8, 2005, that mosques, hospitals, schools and madrasas run by the LET in the POK were destroyed by the quake. He added: 'Many of our members have been killed. They are in scores while several others are still trapped under the rubble.' - b. raman."
[The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Distinguished Fellow and Convenor, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Chennai Chapter - ed.]
URL http://www.saag.org/papers16/paper1571.html
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) [the paper was not archived at the time of this abstract. However, in a few weeks time it will be available at web.archive.org/web/*/www.saag.org]
Link reported by: B. Raman (corde@vsnl.com)
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