ISLAMABAD, 21 October 2005 — Pakistan yesterday raised the number of people confirmed dead in the killer earthquake to 49,739 as the United Nations begged the world not to let survivors die.
Maj. Gen. Farooq Ahmad Khan told a news conference: “The tally of dead today stands at 49,739, the injured around 74,000.” India has said the Oct. 8 earthquake killed more than 1,300 people in its part of divided Kashmir.
Earlier, Pakistani authorities said there were discrepancies in a higher toll given by provincial authorities. Asked about a report that 79,000 people had died across South Asia in the disaster, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said official figures as of Thursday morning were far lower than that.
In Geneva, Jan Egeland, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator, said: “We have never had this kind of logistical nightmare ever. We thought the tsunami was the worst we could get. This is worse.”
Nearly two weeks after the earthquake, Pakistan set up new helipads and NATO shipped tons of aid, but the United Nations estimated half a million people were still cut off.
He called on the international community to launch a “second Berlin airlift,” referring to the air shuttle that overcame the Soviet blockade of the German city in 1948-49.
“Tens of thousands of people’s lives are at stake and they could die if we don’t get to them in time,” Egeland said.
He was echoing a strongly worded appeal by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who called late Wednesday for an “immediate and exceptional escalation of the global relief effort.” “That means a second, massive wave of death will happen if we do not step up our efforts now,” Annan said at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
— Additional input from agencies
