Thursday, November 17, 2005

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Torrential rains caused authorities to temporarily ground relief flights Sunday following the crash of a Pakistani army helicopter that killed six people. The MI-17 transport helicopter was returning home after dropping off relief workers in Bagh, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told The Associated Press on Sunday. All those killed were military personnel.Bad weather or a technical malfunction were suspected to have caused the crash earlier in the day, he said.Also Sunday, the Pakistani military offered conflicting reports of a dramatic rescue from a collapsed mountaintop home near Balakot, and subsequent interviews with the children involved discounted the military's accounts of the incident.Meanwhile, soldiers were working in the rain to cover up aid supplies delivered by helicopters in previous days. Because of the weather, few relief helicopters took off Sunday and the U.S. military said it had suspended flights. Pakistan's army said cold, wet conditions would probably cause casualties among the homeless survivors. "There are bound to be casualties because of bad weather. How much, I don't know," Maj. Gen. Farooq Ahmed Khan, the country's relief commissioner, was reported by the AP as saying Sunday. The October 8 quake's epicenter was near Balakot, a city of about 250,000 in Pakistan's North-West Frontier province, 145 kilometers (90 miles) north-northeast of Islamabad.Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's office said Saturday it killed at least 38,000 people in Pakistan and injured 62,000. Another 1,300 deaths were reported in India, most of them in Indian-controlled Kashmir.More than 40,000 Pakistani troops are taking part in rescue and relief efforts, focusing on North-West Frontier province and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said nearly 2.5 million people are believed to be homeless as a result of the quake.Officials said 4,000 injured people have been admitted to hospitals in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.Pakistani rangers have secured all roads leading to Muzaffarabad, one of the hardest-hit towns, and other affected areas, officials said.Hundreds of rangers are deployed along the routes to stop the looting of trucks carrying relief supplies to the most affected areas, said a rangers official.Roads to many areas were clogged with traffic, slowing ground efforts to reach the most vulnerable.Meanwhile, Saudi King Abdullah II donated $133 million for victims of the quake, said Ali Asseri, Saudi Arabia's ambassador in Pakistan.The money will be used to construct schools, hospitals and roads in the region, and will be available to the Pakistani government immediately, Asseri told CNN.The king has also ordered the dispatch of a daily fleet of 10 cargo planes filled with relief supplies to Pakistan until the country's need for goods, medicines, tents and food for victims is fulfilled.The first C-130s, carrying food, tents and medicine, began arriving Friday is Islamabad.Aziz said Saturday the quake had caused an estimated loss of $5 billion in his country.Saudi Arabia has already set up a high-tech field hospital in Balakot, near where the quake struck last Saturday. Dozens of Saudi doctors are caring for victims of the quake.Musharraf said Saturday that tents were desperately needed to help shelter the homeless survivors ahead of the harsh Himalayan winter."The main thing we need is tents," said the president. "We are asking everyone to give us tents."The quake has prompted rival nations to put aside their differences -- at least for the moment -- to help the tens of thousands of people left homeless. India, which has fought three wars with Pakistan since 1947, sent a plane loaded with humanitarian supplies on Friday to Lahore.It was the second shipment to its nuclear rival.When an Iranian plane arrived at Chakalala air base in Pakistan, it sought help with unloading the cargo from U.S. military personnel already on site."I said, 'Certainly, no question about it,' " said Col. Richard Walberg of the U.S. Air Force. "I sent my team over behind the airplane with our loaders, and they brought some equipment off." (Watch efforts to get aid to hard-hit areas -- 2:40)The quake, however, has not ceased violence in the region. Militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed two Indian army soldiers and wounded six others early Saturday at an Indian army camp in the town of Kathua, according to state police sources.CNN's Becky Anderson, Satinder Bindra, Ram Ramgopal and Syed Mohsin Naqvi contributed to this report. Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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