New major quake hits Pakistan as death toll rises to 515

ISLAMABAD: A major earthquake rocked Pakistan’s southwest Saturday, sending people running into the street in panic just days after another quake in the same region. The fresh quake struck as officials raised the Sept. 24 temblor death to 515.
The US Geological Survey said on its website that a 6.8 magnitude quake was felt in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province.
The Pakistani Meteorological Department measured the earthquake at 7.2 magnitude. The department said its epicenter was located about 150 kilometers (90 miles) west of the town of Khuzdar.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, said Abdur Rasheed, the deputy commissioner of Awaran district where both quakes were centered.
There may have been little left to damage after Tuesday’s disaster. Few of the mud and homemade brick houses in the area survived the 7.7 magnitude quake that leveled houses and buried people in the rubble across the district of Awaran.
Babar Yaqoob, the chief secretary of Baluchistan, gave the updated death toll as he toured the destroyed region of Awaran, where the 7.7 magnitude quake struck on Tuesday.
Bodies are still being discovered in houses whose mud walls and wooden roof beams had collapsed.
“My daughter was killed when my house collapsed — I was also inside my house but manage to run out,” said 70-year-old Gul Jan. “We are sitting under the scorching sun and need shelter.”
In Labash village near Awaran, more than half of the 3,000 houses have collapsed and those still standing have wide cracks.
“Everywhere we go people are asking for tents,” legislator Abdul Qadeer Baloch said.

Militants hampering relief efforts
The arid area is also a stronghold of separatist Baluch insurgents, who have twice shot at helicopters carrying military officials in charge of responding to the disaster.
On Thursday, two rockets narrowly missed the helicopter carrying the general in charge of the National Disaster Management Agency and on Friday shots were fired at two helicopters carrying aid, the military said.
“There is a law and order situation here and other hurdles but despite everything, we will get to every last person,” said Lt. Gen. Nasir Janjua, the highest ranking military official in the province.
Aid must travel by pitted roads that cut through mountains held by the insurgents.
The rebels, who have killed many civilians and members of the security forces, are fighting for independence from Pakistan. They accuse the central government of stealing the province’s rich mineral deposits and the security forces of widespread human rights abuses.