SRINAGAR, 16 October 2005 — A series of three aftershocks since early yesterday have produced panic in India-administered Kashmir, causing thousands of people left homeless by the earthquake of Oct. 8 to rush out of buildings and temporary accommodation.
The aftershocks were of moderate intensity, 5-5.5 on the Richter scale.
Unconfirmed reports said four people died in Uri sector when a structure damaged on Oct. 8 collapsed.
Meanwhile, aid workers and military officials said an acute shortage of tents was hampering efforts to provide shelter to the homeless.
“It is a race against the clock,” said Helen Lambard, a volunteer, with the International Rescue Corps, as temperatures dipped in the Himalayan region with winter setting in.
More than 1,300 people were killed and 50,000 people left homeless, their villages reduced to rubble by the 7.5 intensity earthquake.
“We are running short of tents. Many survivors are still spending nights under the open sky,” said a senior Indian Army official in Srinagar.
He acknowledged that there was some truth in complaints that tents and relief material were being taken by politically powerful people in some areas.
The local government of Jammu and Kashmir state announced it would immediately begin building four community centers to house the homeless. “Tents are not a long-term solution in winter and it will take time to rebuild the houses,” an administration official said.
“Earlier this year the region was hit by snow, blizzards and flooding. These people have been hit twice, and now winter is setting in,” Mia Turner, spokesperson for the UN World Food Program, was quoted as saying by NDTV television network.
There were several complaints by NGO workers and the earthquake victims that relief was not being properly disbursed.
“Hundreds of trucks carrying blankets, food and utensils roll in to Uri every day, but the disorganized distribution is ruining it all,” said a resident of Maidan village, Uri sector. The old and weak are left stranded, he added.
The army is trying to restore links with remote areas of the worst-affected Uri and Tangdhar sectors with the help of local people.
Road links to many of these remote villages are cut off each winter.
Meanwhile, the battle against insurgency in the valley continues. The army, with its resources stretched by rescue and relief operations, lost two soldiers when a group of suspected militants attacked an installation in Kathua district, southwest of winter capital Jammu.
Six soldiers were injured in the ambush. Two rebels were also killed.
Last week’s earthquake seems to have done little to shock militants into at least easing off a 16-year-old insurgency against New Delhi’s rule in Kashmir.
Violence has continued unabated in the disputed Himalayan region in the week after the earthquake, dampening hopes that the tragedy would open a door toward peace.
Nor does the disaster seem to have made more than a temporary dent in what India calls “the terrorist infrastructure” on Pakistani soil, according to Indian intelligence agencies.
“Cross-border movement (of guerrillas) has continued notwithstanding the earthquake,” said K. Srinivasan, the top intelligence officer for India’s Border Security Force in Kashmir. “Wherever there are some loopholes, these groups want to exploit them.”
The United Jihad Council (UJC), an umbrella outfit of Kashmiri militant groups based in Pakistani Kashmir, announced a temporary suspension of operations in the quake-affected parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir.
But Srinivasan said that the UJC leadership did not have complete control over militants on the Indian side.
“There is a difference between what is said and what is done,” he added. “This is for public consumption, that is all.”
