Official Death Toll in Pakistan Quake 73,276

ISLAMABAD, 3 November 2005 — Pakistan yesterday increased the official death toll from the devastating earthquake to 73,276 and said it could rise further.

Maj. Gen. Farooq Ahmad Khan said the sharp rise from a figure of 57,600 given a day earlier could be related to concerted efforts to clear debris since the Oct. 8 disaster.

“Unfortunately the death toll has risen to 73,276 and the number of injured is over 69,000,” he told a news conference. “There is a likelihood of a further increase.”

Maj. Gen. Khan said those listed as injured were seriously hurt.

Azad Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province bore the brunt of the 7.6 magnitude quake. It was the strongest to hit South Asia in 100 years and left more than three million people in need of emergency shelter with a bitter winter approaching.

Maj. Gen. Khan said the government had received around $2 billion in pledges for the massive task of reconstruction, still way short of its cost estimate of more than $5 billion.

He appealed to the international community for tents and shelter, as well as more medicines and vaccines for tetanus and other diseases.

Maj. Gen. Khan said 41 villages had still not been reached. He also appealed for the world to send two air ambulances as the number of injured was set to rise.

“Just imagine how many villages and towns have become heaps of rubble and how many people got buried in the rubble,” he said.

Because many roads are blocked by landslides, helicopters have been vital to the relief effort.

The US military resumed its relief flights yesterday, but said it steered clear of an area where it believes a rocket grenade was fired at one of its helicopters on Tuesday.

The Pakistani Army called the incident close to Chakothi a misunderstanding caused by a US helicopter crew mistaking engineers blasting a damaged road as attackers.

But Commander Nick Balice, spokesman for the US military’s Disaster Assistance Center, said the helicopter crew, some of whom had served with the US forces fighting militants in Afghanistan, were familiar with rocket propelled grenade fire.

“Based on the reports we had from crew members that’s what we think it was,” he said. “We are staying a safe distance away from that area as we continue to investigate the incident.”

The US Central Command said the CH-47 Chinook helicopter was not hit and landed safely. It has not said who it believes fired the rocket, but the area is one in which militant groups fighting Indian rule operate.

The United States has 24 helicopters taking part in the relief effort, which includes others from several countries, including Britain and Japan, as well as some chartered by the United Nations and the Red Cross.

“We do not have safety concerns,” Vice Adm. John Stufflebeem, commander of the NATO response force relief mission, told reporters yesterday when asked if the alleged attack on the Chinook would affect other helicopter flights.

But NATO’s ambassador to Pakistan, Maurits Jochems, said he would be dismayed if the Chinook was proven to have come under attack.

“I really cannot understand that people would fire at soldiers doing a humanitarian relief operation to help Pakistani people in dire straits,” he said.