KASHMIR and IDPs

Please find below articles out from ‘the Christian Science Monitor’, an UN-Meeting, twice ‘the Guardian unlimited’.

From The Monitor’s View: For postquake Pakistanis, a greater need: Try explaining “donor fatigue” to the earthquake survivors in Pakistan - up to 3 million of whom need food and shelter as winter blows into the Himalayas. Or, explain it to hard-line Muslim groups providing humanitarian assistance while the West responds with far less magnanimity than it did after Asia’s tsunami.

Perhaps because the Oct. 8 quake came in the wake of other large-scale disasters, perhaps because nations’ aid budgets are stretched, or because the 7.6 temblor hasn’t received 24/7 media coverage - whatever the reasons, the relief effort in mountainous northern Pakistan is in a cash crisis, and requires urgent response.

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I have not been able to write to you since 8th of October. The deadly earthquake in a large part of Northern India, especially in Kashmir was too big a tragedy taking the life of 60,000 people, wounding about 100,000 people and uprooting nearly a million people. Fifty per cent of the dead are school children with 200 to 300 children getting buried in each school building.

I joined the relief teams of some NGOs and went to the field to provide relief. We collected hundreds of blankets, tons of medicine, food, clothing, and water bottled and distributed these among the suffering population. As most of the dead could not be buried because is difficult, there is horrible stench and one cannot go near the site.

All this kept me busy in great humanitarian work. I cannot explain the tragedy I have seen with my eyes. There was no communication link, all wires and installations destroyed and buried under mountains of debris. Today I have been able to establish temporarily some link and am writing to you. Kashi Nath Pandita.

Found in Guardian unlimited, Special Reports.

The Times of India writes: South Asian quake decimates militants in terror camps

NEW DELHI: Latest intelligence reports, collated by the Indian agencies, almost a week after the killer earthquake hit Pakistan, hold that as many as 1,500 militants of various outfits in Pakistan perished in the disaster. The agencies also say that many training camps for militants also have disappeared.

Though most militant outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) , Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) , Al-Badr and Tehrik-e-Mujahideen took a hit, Hizbul Mujahideen alone lost around 400 men.

At least a third of the 1,500 killed were hardcore jehadis, say intelligence officials, basing their assessment on a combination of human and electronic intelligence obtained from across the border.

Apart from the fact that Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was virtually the epicentre of the quake, one major factor which hit outfits was that they had recently relocated many of their ”makeshift” camps from jungles to villages.

“Our reports show militant outfits had requisitioned three to four corner houses in many villages for their cadres in areas like Rawalkot, Manshera, Nikial, Kotli, Bagh, Palandri, Dudhnial, Deolian, Kalighati and, of course, Muzaffarabad, which were flattened by the quake,” said an official.

“Moreover, many of their launch pads and communication centres were also hit by the quake. This has thrown the command and control of the outfits slightly out of gear. We are picking up a lot of radio chatter about this,” he added.