ISLAMABAD/JALALABAD, 14 December 2005 — A strong tremor triggered panic yesterday among frightened survivors of October’s earthquake disaster in South Asia, sending them running out of temporary shelters and into the freezing Himalayan winter.
Four people were injured in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad after the 6.7-magnitude quake struck at 2:48 a.m. (2148 GMT Monday) with an epicenter in the remote Hindu Kush mountains of northeastern Afghanistan.
“One house has been destroyed. So far we’ve received four wounded people, three of them slightly, and only one woman was badly injured,” said Ayoob Shinwari, a doctor at a Jalalabad hospital.
In Islamabad and other cities, the tremor sparked panic and caused landslides. The quake was strongly felt in Jhelum, Gujrat, Gujar Khan, Attock, Abbottabad, Murree and adjoining villages. There were reports of landslides in Balakot, Naran and adjoining areas hit by the October quake.
In Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir, many survivors of the October quake rushed from their tents and from houses still left standing by the original disaster.
“It was very strong. People came out of their tents and started screaming and reciting verses from the Qur’an,” resident Sarfraz Ahmad said. “The people living in buildings spared by the big quake were the most terrified,” he added. “Now everyone is getting back into their shelters. They are reluctant, but they have no choice because the cold is unbearable.” Despite the panic, Pakistani and Indian officials reported no immediate casualties.
“Our men are surveying positions in remote villages but there are no casualties so far,” said a police spokesman in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, where over 1,300 people were killed in the October disaster. Haleema Akhter said that seven members of her family had braved the freezing winter cold for 30 minutes after the temblor shook them from their beds.
“Thanks be to Allah that all my relatives are safe,” she said in Srinagar. “It was only after my two little children started shivering in cold that we decided to go back,” she said. The tremor triggered minor landslides in northern Indian villages, already destroyed by the October earthquake, also forcing survivors to spend the night in the open.
“We raced out of our tents and tin sheds when soil and stones started rolling down from the mountain tops,” said 21-year-old Nadeem Abbasi from Gwalta village in the Uri region.
“Fortunately there were no casualties or loss of property but it created lots of panic,” Abassi said, adding that the October earthquake killed 65 of his relatives and friends.
Mosques in Indian-administered Kashmir were busier yesterday than usual, residents said. “I went to the mosque to pray to Allah for forgiveness,” said Zulfikar Sheikh, 43.
“We’ve definitely done some wrong! That’s why this is happening again and again,” he said, adding that the quake had widened the cracks in his house created by October’s massive earthquake.
Meanwhile, the United Nations yesterday appealed for immediate funds to protect some 1.9 million Pakistani earthquake survivors facing the bitter Himalayan winter.
“We estimate that about $45 million is urgently required to provide additional thermal protection to about 1.9 million people,” UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Vandemoortele told a press conference.
