[With the
military and the police focused on the rescue operation, little has been done
to recover bodies buried under debris and mud. Officials fear that once a
concerted recovery effort begins, the number of dead may grow substantially.
“It is hard to come up with a definite death count till the forces can look
through the debris and the slush,” said a police officer.']
By Basharat Peer
 |
Manan Vatsyayana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A pilgrim carrying a child was transported across a flooded river by rescuers
in the northern India state of Uttarakhand.
|
The army suspended helicopter flights to rescue stranded
people after dense fog descended on the Himalayan region on Sunday morning, but
the evacuation flights resumed in the afternoon., the military said. Troops
were also building makeshift bridges, and some people were being rescued by
soldiers on the ground, according to a statement released by the Defense
Ministry.
Indian troops on Sunday evacuated 1,000 stranded people
from the mountains around Jungle Chatti in the Kedar Valley of Uttarakhand, the
ministry said.
More rain is expected in the area over the next few days,
according to the Indian Meterological Department.
Most of the stranded were people on a pilgrimage known as
Char Dham Yatra, which takes Hindus to four of the holiest shrines in
Uttarakhand between May and November. But thousands of residents of villages in
the flood-hit areas have also been affected.
“I was stranded in a bus for three days and we were stuck
near a village where the roads had been washed away by the floods,"said
Avinash Kumar, a businessman from Uttar Pradesh, who had gone on the pilgrimage
with his wife and two sons. “We could see the nearby village from the bus and
the floods and lightning had destroyed most of its houses away. Who knows what
happened to the villagers?”
Bhaskaranand Joshi, secretary of revenue and disaster
management in Uttarakhand, said that the number of people evacuated had risen
to 94,000 on Sunday and that 9,000 people were still stranded. Mr. Joshi said
that 127 relief camps had been set up throughout the state.
Several telephone hot lines have been by set up by the
government for relatives of the missing. “The phone hasn’t stopped ringing for
a moment,” said a Uttarakhand police officer assigned to answer calls. “We are
taking the details of the missing persons, their last locations, and forwarding
them to the personnel carrying out the rescue operations.”
With the military and the police focused on the rescue
operation, little has been done to recover bodies buried under debris and mud.
Officials fear that once a concerted recovery effort begins, the number of dead
may grow substantially. “It is hard to come up with a definite death count till
the forces can look through the debris and the slush,” said a police officer.
The Sunday Tribune, an Indian newspaper, reported from the
hardest-hit area in Uttarakhand that ‘‘an overwhelming stench of bodies and
rotting carcasses pervades the air.”
Indian volunteer groups have been collecting clothes, food,
blankets and money for residents of Uttarakhand, The Associated Press reported,
and the American ambassador to India, Nancy J. Powell, said Sunday that the
United States would provide $150,000 in emergency relief to families living in
remote areas of the state.
Hari Kumar and Malavika Vyawahare
contributed reporting.
GUNMEN KILL CLIMBERS IN NORTHERN PAKISTAN
[The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “deep shock” and “strong condemnation” over the killings, said a report by Xinhua, China’s official news agency. China's embassy in Pakistan has asked the government there to do all it can to save any possible survivors from further attack and "to apprehend and sternly punish the perpetrators as quickly as possible, and to take measures to protect the safety and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals in Pakistan,” Xinhua.]
By Salman Masood
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — In
one of the most brazen attacks on foreigners in the country in recent years,
militants killed nine tourists and one Pakistani on a mountaineering expedition
in northern Pakistan on Sunday, according to the country’s interior minister.
The dead included five
Ukrainians and three Chinese, officials said. Their Pakistani guide was also
killed in the attack. The nationality of the ninth tourist was unclear.
The attack occurred in
far-flung Gilgit-Baltistan, a beautiful, mountainous part of northern Pakistan
where attacks on foreigners have been rare in recent years, although there has
been sporadic sectarian violence. Officials said that the foreigners were part
of an expedition that planned to climb Nanga Parbat which, at 26,660 feet, is
the world’s ninth highest mountain and Pakistan’s second highest peak.
A spokesman for the
Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault, which he said was in
retaliation for American drone strikes in the tribal belt.
Gunmen wearing police
uniforms stormed into their camp around 1 a.m. Sunday morning and opened fire,
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told Parliament on Sunday morning.
The gunmen were said to have escaped after the attack.
The Taliban spokesman,
Ehsanullah Ehsan, said they belonged to a Taliban affiliate named Jundul Hafsa,
and that the attack was a response to an American drone attackthat
killed the Taliban deputy leader, Wali ur-Rehman, on May 29.
Mr. Ehsan added that the
Taliban sought to ‘'awaken'’ international opinion about the drone campaign,
although it was unclear how attacks on Chinese and Ukrainian nationals was a
response to an American action — except, perhaps, to increase pressure on the
newly installed government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
In any event, the
incident is likely to badly damage what remains of the country’s tourism
sector. Until now, mountaineers were considered one of the few groups that
remained impervious to the perceived perils of visiting Pakistan.
Drawn by the challenge
of climbing some of the world’s most spectacular yet forbidding peaks, their
greatest danger stemmed from the mountains themselves. The Pakistan Army has
assisted in several daring high-altitude rescues of climbing expeditions that
had gotten into trouble.
But Sunday’s attack
introduced a new element of risk that is likely to affect such expeditions, at
least in the short term.
Mr. Khan, the interior
minister, said the government had suspended the police chief and the chief
secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan. He portrayed the attack as an attempt to disrupt
Pakistan’s relations with other countries.
‘'It is not just an
attack on tourists,'’ Mr. Khan said. ‘'It is an attack on Pakistan.'’
In a statement, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the attack as “a heinous crime'’ that
appeared to be ‘'attempting to disrupt the growing relations of Pakistan with
China and other friendly countries.'’
A foreign ministry
spokesman said that senior officials had called the ambassadors of China and
Ukraine to express condolences on behalf of the government.
The Chinese Ministry of
Foreign Affairs expressed “deep shock” and “strong condemnation” over the
killings, said a report by Xinhua, China’s official news agency. China's
embassy in Pakistan has asked the government there to do all it can to save any
possible survivors from further attack and "to apprehend and sternly
punish the perpetrators as quickly as possible, and to take measures to protect
the safety and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals in
Pakistan,” Xinhua.
Mr. Sharif, the prime
minister, condemned the attack and said his administration would make every
effort to ensure Pakistan is safe for tourists.
Declan Walsh contributed
reporting from Johannesburg, and Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud from Islamabad.
