They have indicated they will not stand in the way of aid efforts and say they have ordered their fighters to help the victims.
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Afghanistan and Pakistan are scrambling to get aid to survivors of this week’s magnitude-7.5 quake as the region’s death toll from the tremor rose to 385.
“The news pushed our win against England to one side and every player was shocked and wants to contribute towards the relief work”.
Officials said on October 27 that the death toll in the disaster has reached more than 300 and is still rising.
Pakistani helicopters and military planes were being used to transport relief supplies and military engineers were working on restoring communication lines disrupted by landslides triggered by the quake, said Lt. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, the army spokesman.
Dr John Ebel, chairman of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College in the USA, said the depth of the quake had limited its severity and meant damage was likely to be spread broadly rather than focused in one disaster zone.
In Pakistan, more than 1,800 people were injured according to government authorities.
The bulk of the casualties recorded so far were in Pakistan, where 241 people were killed, including 196 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and more than 1,600 injured, disaster management authorities said.
Officials say rescuers are struggling to reach quake-stricken regions in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Inayatullah Khnan, minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the worst affected of Pakistan’s provinces, said the situation was grim in the districts of Upper Chitral, Dir and Shangla. As a harsh winter sets in across the rugged Hindu Kush mountains where the quake struck, the plight of thousands left homeless is becoming more serious. Teams on foot have been sent to the most remote region, but air relief drops aren’t expected to begin for days.
Including the toll from a major aftershock in May, almost 9,000 people lost their lives there and 900,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
“We have insufficient food and other aid”, Khil said.
CNN reported that many buildings and houses in the affected areas collapsed as result of the strong quake, which lasted for abount 45 seconds.
In Takhar province, not far from the earthquake’s epicenter in Badakhshan province, 12 girls died in a stampede as they tried to leave a high school.
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The authority said it had distributed 15,519 tents, 25,700 blankets and tons of food. “We must ensure them that the government is prepare and ready to provide assistance for people at this critical period of time”, he said.
