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Pakistanis flee quake city before winter bites

Posted on: Tuesday, 11 October 2005, 11:05 CDT

By Aamir Ashraf

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Thousands of people are pouring out of Muzaffarabad following the earthquake, escaping a ruined city without electricity, sanitation and adequate supplies of food, water and fuel.

Buses, trucks and cars carrying families and loaded with whatever belongings they have left are heading down from the Himalayan foothills to the safety of cities on the plains.

"I'm going to Rawalpindi, we can't live here, our house is badly damaged, there is no food, no water, no electricity, nothing's here," said Baber Ali, loading his belongings onto a large truck which he had hired with seven other families.

The 7.6 magnitude quake, which has killed more than 20,000 people, was centered in the Muzaffarabad region.

The once-pretty riverside city of around 100,000 is barely recognizable, the old part of town was flattened and the city's infrastructure will need extensive rebuilding.

Most people are living outdoors, in parks, gardens and sports fields, because their houses were destroyed or they fear that the structures are so damaged that they could collapse at any moment.

Many people wear surgical masks or hold a cloth to their face as some protection against the nauseating stench of decaying bodies.

The dead are being slowly recovered and laid out on the city's main business street waiting for collection.

Shops have been destroyed and markets are closed, so finding food and water is almost impossible. Prices for what little is available has risen by up to 10 times.

Scuffles have erupted as crowds of people swarm around private relief trucks distributing biscuits, bread and bananas on city streets. But the government says much more aid is on the way after the main road linking the city to the lowlands was cleared of landslides and reopened on Monday.

An army commander overseeing the relief operation said 28 aid trucks had arrived by late Tuesday afternoon and many more were on the way.

"We've tried to regularize this by having distribution points. Things should definitely be much more orderly," said Lieutenant-General Salahuddin Satti.

"PEOPLE ARE ANGRY"

But with nights getting colder as winter approaches, many residents are not waiting around to see if things get better, and once the main road reopened they started to leave.

"Winter is in a month or so and I don't see the reconstruction of my house starting before then so it's better for my family to go to our relatives in Murree," said Kamran Kiyani, referring to a hill town near the capital, Islamabad.

The operator of a bus service to Rawalpindi said he was facing a flood of passengers.

"Every day 2,500 to 3,000 families are leaving Muzaffarabad to cities like Rawalpindi and Abbotabad," said Saleem Mughal.

"There's been a big rush since the road was cleared. People are willing to pay a big amount to get seats for their family on the first available bus."

Security worries are another factor fuelling the exodus.

Looting has broken out at night and police fired into the air to chase off a gang raiding a government depot on Monday.

"Gangs of looters are roaming around at night and they're now looting houses and I don't want to put my family at risk," said Naseem Bibi waiting to board a bus with her family.

"I'm going to stay with my sister in Abbotabad and after three or four months we'll think about whether we're coming back or not," she said, surrounded by a pile of bags and cases.

Desperation has driven some survivors to looting. Five relief trucks were looted by a group of about 200 men and women on the main road on Monday, a relief worker said.

Some relief workers have also been beaten by angry crowds trying to get supplies, said Saleem Khan, a member of a Pakistani aid group whose goods were stolen.

"People are angry, they waited for government relief for more than two days. Some groups have now started looting stuff before it reaches the camps," Khan said.

Source: REUTERS

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