officials described as South Asia’s "worst earthquake" in recent memory Saturday, October 8, but over 19,000 people died, including Christians, in cities and villages across India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"My wife and I felt strong tremors at about 9:25 am [local time] in New Delhi," India’s capital, Arora told BosNewsLife. "The tremors were so strong that they shook our third floor house," he said.
His observations reflected those of many people in New Delhi and in the capitals of Pakistan and Afghanistan where buildings reportedly shook and walls swayed for about a minute, and panicked people ran from their homes and offices. Tremors continued for hours afterward.
"We knew it was an earthquake of high intensity, and could be devastating. We immediately prayed for the safety of all the people, and called our relatives and friends to know if they were safe," explained Arora, who covers the plight of persecuted and impoverished Christians for BosNewsLife News Agency and other media in India and throughout Asia.
"No causalities have been reported in Delhi, but a few people have lost their lives and several have sustained injuries in Jammu and Kashmir state at the India-Pakistan border," reported Arora. "Seemingly, people of all faiths, especially Muslims, were among those who lost their lives and property. The media will be able to report on the extent of the loss of lives and property only by tomorrow, Sunday, October 9," Arora warned.
TREMORS THROUGHOUT INDIA
He said that tremors were also felt in India’s Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, and Madhya Pradesh states. "The earthquake was 7.6 at the Richter scale having its epicenter near Islamabad," Arora said from the BosNewsLife New Delhi Bureau. "We pray that God would be with those who have lost their loved ones and who have been rendered homeless."
In Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan, officials were quoted as saying that in the Indian-controlled portion 200 people were killed, including 15 soldiers who perished in a landslide. About 35 people were feared dead when a courtroom and two schools collapsed at the other site in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, police said.
In neighboring Pakistan, government and military officials said many people died in collapsed buildings in several areas, including Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar.
EXTENSIVE DAMAGE
The earthquake, 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep, struck at 8:50 a.m. local time 95 kilometers (60 milea) north-north east of Islamabad, which has a population of more than 500,000, and 25 kilometers west-northwest (75 miles) of Srinagar in the disputed territory of Kashmir in India, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.
"The damage and casualties could be massive and it is a national tragedy," said Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the Pakistani army’s chief spokesman in a statement to reporters. "The is the worst earthquake in recent times."
"The quake was felt from New Delhi to Kabul, but early reports suggest Pakistan suffered the
most damage," said Voice Of America (VOA) network reporter Benjamin Sand from Islamabad. Sand said a 10-story building in the capital, Islamabad, collapsed, and quoted witnesses as saying that "hundreds are trapped in the rubble." (Pictured: Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf (center-top) visits the site of the collapsed 10-story apartment building in Islamabad)
FLOORS VANISHED
"The problem is this: the upper six floors are totally vanished," a witness, Mohammad Rafiq, told VOA. "I don’t think any people who were in the upper stories, they can survive." Large parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan are seismically active because underneath them, the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate, experts said.
Children suffered as well. One child was reportedly killed and six injured in a school collapse in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi area. Elsewhere two children were reported dead in Afghanistan’s city of Jalalabad and an eight-year-old boy in Indian Kashmir was crushed to death when the walls of his house collapsed.
The toll also included 250 girls who died when their school in northwestern Pakistan collapsed. Another 500 students were injured, The Associated Press news agency quoted Ataullah Khan Wazir, police chief in the northwestern district of Mansehra, as saying.
The latest earthquake was expected to put additional strain on Christian aid workers and local churches already struggling to provide aid in the aftermath of tsunami related quakes in Asia, BosNewsLife monitored.
CHURCHES TOGETHER
Several of them, including Action by Churches Together (ACT) are already struggling to provide relief in areas such as Indonesia’s Nias island which was struck by a powerful earthquake six months ago. "Small aftershocks occur daily in villages across the island," the organization said. ACT has also several partner churches in Pakistan and India, where Christians were expected to assess the damage.
Other relief groups such as Oxfam, said aid workers are already on the ground in several devastated areas, especially in Pakistan. "Oxfam staff and partners in the North West Frontier province have confirmed that in many places there is massive destruction. In some areas all of the houses have collapsed. An Oxfam emergency assessment and response team is on its way to the province," said Raphael Sindaye, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Response coordinator in Islamabad.
"Oxfam has a history of working in the area and will be mobilizing its existing partners and resources in the response. The initial needs appear to be tents, blankets, medical kits, food aid, water and trauma counseling for those affected." Meanwhile Air force and army soldiers helped civilian authorities rescue people trapped under buildings in several areas, news reports said.
AID DIFFICULT
However providing aid is difficult in several regions, suggested Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders.
"MSF was already present in the area with three expats in the village of Lamnian in Pakistani Kashmir, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the line of control with Indian Kashmir and close to the epicenter of the earthquake. However the village has been completely destroyed, including the clinic where we are about to start working and the MSF house. The project would focus on safe motherhood," the organization said in comments monitored by BosNewsLife News Center.
"All team members, a project coordinator, logistician and nurse, are fine," it added. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who was visiting the site, told reporters the quake was a "test of the nation".
Shortly after he spoke an aftershock struck Islamabad, forcing people from their homes, reporters said.
