ISLAMABAD, 2 November 2006 — Britain’s Prince Charles visited a village in Pakistani Kashmir yesterday where more than 1,600 people died in an earthquake a little over a year ago. Overall the quake killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistani Kashmir and North West Frontier Province, another 1,500 in Indian Kashmir, and left more than 3 million homeless.
Accompanied by his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, the prince visited a health clinic run by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Pattika, a village in the Neelam valley in Muzaffarabad.
“You’ve got a nice son,” Camilla told Nageena Bibi, as the village woman cradled her eight-month-old boy. “I told her that everything was destroyed and God has saved us,” Bibi said. Charles, who is president of Britain’s Red Cross, squatted to chat with a group of villagers being taught how to better look after their livestock.
The royal couple showed plenty of interest in horses being cared for at a veterinary hospital set up by a British animal welfare organization, the Brooke Hospital for Animals. While they were there, it was announced that Camilla had accepted the presidency of the Brooke.
