Earthquake creates 100km wasteland

For many in the aftermath of the disaster, the efforts of local Samaritans and the military to pull them out of the wreckage were already too late, with officials in Islamabad and New Delhi confirming that hundreds had already died, engulfed in landslides or suffocated by debris as they slept in their own homes.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf described the catastrophe yesterday as a "major test for the Pakistani nation" as senior government officials across the border in northern India confirmed that a state of emergency had been declared.

On both sides of the razor wire that separates the two foes, the Indian and Pakistani governments' huge relief effort went on with military helicopters, normally engaged in counter-insurgency manoeuvres along the most heavily militarised border in the world, air-dropping food, blankets, clothing and medical supplies to areas cut off from roads and railways.

The damage was most extensive in north-western Pakistan and Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan.

A typical story was that of Haji Fazal Ilahi, a shopkeeper in the northern town of Mansehra, who was standing vigil yesterday afternoon over the body of his 14-year-old daughter, lying under a sheet on a hospital mattress. He said his wife, a daughter and a brother also perished in the debris of their home.

"I could see rocks and homes tumbling down the mountains," said Ilahi, who was driving to his village of Garlat when the quake struck. "When I reached my village, there was nothing left of my home."

With little information getting through from remote areas cut off by landslides and floods, Pakistani officials could only guess at the number of dead.

The destruction was random. Across the Pakistani capital Islamabad, mounds of rubble lay where apartment blocks had collapsed, entombing their occupants next to identical-looking blocks which were barely touched.

Most of the victims died as they slept in their homes near the epicentre of the quake 60 miles north-west of the Pakistani capital.

In Abbotabad, north of Islamabad, dozens of injured victims and other patients, some hooked up to drips, lay on the lawn of the city hospital after officials said aftershocks made it unsafe to stay inside.

Hospital staff with loudspeakers appealed to the public for food and other supplies. One of the injured was an eight-year-old boy, Qadeer, whose father, a farmer named Jehangir, said the only buildings left standing in their village were a mosque and a school. Qadeer lay unconscious, his right leg heavily bandaged.

In Islamabad itself, dozens of people were feared to have lost their lives after a 10-storey apartment building, part of the upmarket Margallah Towers complex in the west of the city, collapsed.

Aided by two large cranes, hundreds of police at the site of the building helped remove chunks of concrete, while rescuers with candles searched the darkened caverns of rubble. Under the glare of TV lights rescuers pulled out at least 82 injured people, their bodies smeared with dust and congealed blood, as well as 11 bodies. Eye-witnesses at the scene claimed that some residents in the building were Westerners. "I've seen mutilated bodies, I've seen people alive but crushed," said a Pakistani army officer taking a break from the rescue.

Rehmatullah Amif, who lived nearby, said he saw clouds of dust from his bathroom window. "I rushed down, and for some time you could not see anything because of the dust. Then we began to look for people in the rubble. We pulled out one man by cutting off his legs. It was like hell."

The Indian authorities confirmed that the Jammu and Kashmir region of the sub-continent had been hit the hardest, with hundreds killed and thousands injured as homes were flattened and communication links disrupted.

Screams were heard across Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, as people fled homes, shops and offices fearing they would be buried under rubble.

On the streets men spontaneously started reading out verses from the Koran and women beat their chests in a display of bereavement.

After the earthquake struck in the Indian Kashmir towns of Uri and Baramulla, dazed neighbourhoods quickly formed impromptu rescue teams to try to dig out victims, but faced the frustration of trying to rescue friends buried under huge chunks of concrete with nothing but their bare hands. Many residents complained that it took precious hours for heavy lifting gear to arrive.

Poor building standards were immediately highlighted by many as responsible for the collapses. "Construction is rubbish in India. The builders use more sand than cement," one rescuer complained. TV pictures from Uri showed mangled piles of masonry and twisted metal and the bloodied body of a small child. A foot was also shown protruding from a heap of debris.

According to the Chief Secretary of the Baramulla region, Vijay Bakaya, the army and the air force had launched rescue and relief operations in the border areas and had so far evacuated 300 injured civilians to Uri Field Hospital. Efforts were also ongoing to restore essential supplies, including power, water and telecommunication links in the valley.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was closely monitoring the situation, immediately announced government payments of 12,000 each to the next of the kin of those killed and assured all possible assistance to the state to deal with the tragedy.

Elsewhere in Kashmir, reports said 5,000 tons of firewood was being brought in from other states to facilitate mass cremations, the safest way to dispose of so many bodies.

Kashmir is well known to be a high-risk area for earthquakes.

The region lies in the collision area of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates, which formed the mighty Himalayas 50 million years ago and are now responsible for annual earthquakes that often cause widespread devastation.

Scotland's Asian community has already begun organising relief and fundraising activities for those affected by the disaster.

Senior Scottish Asian community and business leaders met in Glasgow's Central Mosque last night to plan how to raise money.

Mohammad Sarwar, the MP for Glasgow Govan and Britain's first Muslim Member of Parliament, said: "It is a terrible shock for everyone living here. People are concerned about their families and relatives."

Asian Scots planning to send relief

SCOTLAND'S Asian community has already begun organising relief and fundraising activities for those affected by the disaster.

Horrified members of the community spent anxious hours yesterday watching television pictures and phoning friends and relatives in an effort to get news about their families in the areas which had been hit by the earthquake.

Senior Scottish Asian community and business leaders met in Glasgow's Central Mosque last night to plan how to raise money and gather supplies to send to the affected areas.

"The priority for everyone has been to get through to everyone on the phone. And of course there have been problems getting through because all the lines are so busy."

He added: "We are impressed with the speed of the government's reaction and we praise the efforts of the soldiers and doctors and nurses."

Nasir Jaffri, the chairman of the Scottish Asian Network, said: "We are devastated to hear about the news. We have spent the whole day on the phone and glued to the TV. I was speaking to my father who lives 70 miles from Islamabad and he felt the tremors in his house. They went on for about a minute.

"I was quite lucky in that I managed to get through pretty quickly. Everyone in the Asian community has been calling each other to get the latest news and to talk about what to do now. I'm heading off for a meeting so that we can start an appeal to raise money for a relief effort."