Medical facilities in the province are few and often poorly stocked with supplies and qualified personnel. In Awaran, troops from Pakistan's Frontier Corps patrolled the streets, and the few people driving from Karachi to Awaran passed through numerous security checkpoints. The separatists had already given out relief supplies to the village, he said.Įarlier this week, separatists fired on troops escorting doctors helping out with the quake effort. Masrullah told The Associated Press the separatists have warned that aid workers should not travel with the army or government officials to avoid being attacked.
A resident who went by one name, Masrullah, in the village of Labach outside of Awaran, said the separatists live up in the mountains overlooking the valley. The Awaran district has been a stronghold of the separatists, such as the Baluchistan Liberation Army. Paramilitary soldiers and intelligence agents have waged a repressive campaign against separatists that has fueled distrust of authorities. The local government is seen as notoriously corrupt and dysfunctional. Just over half the province's population is Baluch. The province is Pakistan's largest, making up around 40 per cent of the country's territory, but also its least populated, with only 9 million people. Even among those who haven't taken up arms, there is strong resentment against the central government that they feel exploits the province's oil, natural gas and mineral deposits but fails to reinvest any of the money into the desperately poor region. They were trying to use C-130 planes to reach those spots, said Nisar.Įthnic Baluch separatists have waged a bloody insurgency to win independence for the vast province. The helicopter was carrying the head of the country's National Disaster Management Authority, a Pakistani Army general in charge of relief operations and other officials.īefore the incident, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told members of parliament Thursday that rescuers were already having a hard time reaching some areas due to security problems.
The rockets missed and no one was injured, said the deputy district commissioner, Abdur Rasheed. The militants fired two rockets Thursday at a helicopter carrying top Pakistani officials in charge of relief operations. That task has been made even harder by the danger from separatists in Baluchistan who have been battling the Pakistani government for years. The area's medical infrastructure has struggled to care for the hundreds of injured who were crushed beneath mud brick houses when the quake struck. Tuesday's massive quake was centred in Awaran district, one of the poorest in Pakistan's most impoverished province, Baluchistan. "The people who survived the earthquake are dying now because they have no food or water," said Abdul Latif, one of the protesters.
In the town of Arawan, about 100 protesters gathered around the district office to call attention to the plight of those living in outlying villages still waiting for help. The death toll from the quake reached 355 on Thursday, with nearly 700 people injured, according to a statement from the country's National Disaster Management Authority. Two days after the tremor struck, rescuers were still struggling to help survivors. The attack underscored the dangers authorities and aid workers face in helping victims in southwestern Baluchistan province where a massive, magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit earlier this week. AWARAN, Pakistan - Two rockets fired by militants in Pakistan's quake-struck region narrowly missed a government helicopter on Thursday as survivors complained that aid was not reaching far-flung areas and the harrowing death toll climbed to 355.
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