Pakistan quake leaves 38 dead, 500 injured as rescue operation ends

Pakistani survivors sit by a tent outside their damaged home in an earthquake-hit area on the outskirts of Mirpur in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on September 26, 2019. Rescuers battled along badly damaged roads and combed through toppled buildings to reach victims of an earthquake that killed at least 38 people and injured hundreds more in northeast Pakistan. (AFP)

Pakistani residents look at a collapsed house in an earthquake-hit area on the outskirts of Mirpur in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on September 25, 2019. Rescuers battled along badly damaged roads and combed through toppled buildings September 25 to reach victims of an earthquake that killed at least 25 people and injured hundreds more in northeast Pakistan. (AFP)

Pakistani volunteers from Al-Mustafa Welfare Trust carry relief items for earthquake survivors as they walk on the rubbles of collapsed houses in an earthquake-hit area on the outskirts of Mirpur in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on September 25, 2019. Rescuers battled along badly damaged roads and combed through toppled buildings September 25 to reach victims of an earthquake that killed at least 25 people and injured hundreds more in northeast Pakistan. (AFP)

Residents walk alongside a damaged portion of a road caused by a powerful earthquake in Jatlan near Mirpur, in northeast Pakistan, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019. Thousands of people whose homes were damaged because of a strong earthquake are desperately waiting for the arrival of government help, 22 hours after the 5.8 magnitude tremor struck Pakistan-held Kashmir and elsewhere, killing 25 people and injuring 700. (AP Photo)

• Over 400 homes are damaged, and 80 of the injured remain critical, says disaster management chief
• All quake-affected families to be compensated for their loss on orders of PM Khan, says information minister

ISLAMABAD: At least 38 people were killed and more than 500 injured in a powerful earthquake of magnitude 5.8 on the Richter scale on Tuesday that hit Azad Kashmir and other areas in the eastern Punjab province, officials said on Wednesday, as they announced an end to the rescue operation in the affected areas.
The earthquake flattened homes and shops and split roads open in an area between the towns of Jhelum in Punjab province and Mirpur, a town on Pakistan’s side of the disputed territory of Kashmir.
“I can confirm that the death toll is now at 38 people, with 500 injured,” Saqib Mumtaz, a spokesperson of Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) told Arab News.
At around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, the quake struck 14 miles (23 km) north of Jhelum, at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported. Shortly afterward, photos and videos doing the rounds on social media showed dozens of destroyed vehicles and buildings, and cracks in roads wide enough to swallow cars. 
Approximately 24 hours later, the government of Azad Kashmir announced that the rescue operation had ended.
 “We have ended the rescue operation, and [are] now focusing on the relief efforts,” Mushtaq Minhas, Information Minister Azad and Jammu Kashmir, told Arab News in an interview on Wednesday.
“Normalcy is restoring in the quake-hit areas, and the panic is subsiding,” Minhas said. “We are reaching (out) to affected families to provide them with blankets, medicines, water and other necessary food items.”
The minister said the relief operation would conclude by tomorrow (Thursday) and the process of rehabilitation would begin.
“We will definitely compensate each family for their loss, and we are working to devise a mechanism for it,” he said.
Fearing aftershocks, many people from the area slept outdoors overnight while army troops and other emergency responders carried out rescue operations through the night.
Meanwhile, NDMA chairman Lt. General Mohammad Afzal along with Firdous Ashiq Awan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan, visited the quake-hit areas to assess damage and destruction caused to life and property.
Speaking to media, Afzal said the quake had damaged more than 400 homes in the area, and that special teams had been constituted to document all damages. 
“Ration bags containing food, tents, and blankets are being distributed among the affected families,” he said.
The disaster management chief also said some “friendly countries” had offered aid for the quake-hit areas, but added, “We don’t need it at the moment.”
Afzal said that 80 of those injured remain hospitalized in critical medical condition.
The government has put hospitals in the capital Islamabad on high-alert to deal with emergencies and dispatched a team of nine doctors, three paramedics, life-saving medicines and surgical kits to the quake zone. In two other hospitals in the federal capital, doctors and paramedics are on standby as backups.
“We are here to express our sympathies with the victims and their families … and all of them will be compensated for their loss as per directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan,” Firdous Ashiq Awan said during her visit to the quake-affected areas.
The last major earthquake in Kashmir occurred in October 2005, killing almost 80,000 people and leaving 3.5 million homeless, mainly in Azad Kashmir.