Pakistan quake toll reaches 515, insurgents hamper aid efforts

By Gul Yousufzai

ARAWAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - The death toll from an earthquake in southwestern Pakistan has reached 515, a provincial official said Friday, as insurgent attacks threaten relief efforts and survivors complain of lack of shelter from the scorching sun.

Babar Yaqoob, the Chief Secretary of Baluchistan, gave the updated death toll as he toured the destroyed region of Awaran, where the 7.7 magnitude quake struck on Tuesday.

A 6.8 magnitude aftershock jolted the same region on Saturday, bringing down more buildings amid ongoing search and rescue efforts. Local officials said by telephone it was likely the second quake had caused more deaths.

Bodies are still being discovered in houses whose mud walls and wooden roof beams had collapsed.

"My daughter was killed when my house collapsed - I was also inside my house but manage to run out," said 70-year-old Gul January "We are sitting under the scorching sun and need shelter."

In Labash village near Awaran, more than half of the 3,000 houses have collapsed and those still standing have wide cracks.

"Everywhere we go people are asking for tents," legislator Abdul Qadeer Baloch said.

The arid area is also a stronghold of separatist Baluch insurgents, who have twice shot at helicopters carrying military officials in charge of responding to the disaster.

On Thursday, two rockets narrowly missed the helicopter carrying the general in charge of the National Disaster Management Agency and on Friday shots were fired at two helicopters carrying aid, the military said.

"There is a law and order situation here and other hurdles but despite everything, we will get to every last person," said Lt. Gen. Nasir Janjua, the highest ranking military official in the province.

Aid must travel by pitted roads that cut through mountains held by the insurgents.

The rebels, who have killed many civilians and members of the security forces, are fighting for independence from Pakistan. They accuse the central government of stealing the province's rich mineral deposits and the security forces of widespread human rights abuses.

(Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Aftershock kills 15 in quake-hit Pakistan province

By Gul Yousufzai

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least 15 people were killed on Saturday when an aftershock hit a Pakistani province where hundreds were killed in an major earthquake earlier this week.

Saturday's 6.8 magnitude aftershock destroyed most of the town of Nokjo in the western province of Baluchistan, police said. The town is home to at least 15,000 people.

At least 515 people were killed in Tuesday's earthquake in the same province, officials said on Friday.

The death toll from Saturday's aftershock may rise, said Khan Wasey, the spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps.

Aid deliveries have been complicated by the fact the remote region is home to separatist insurgents who fear the army, which is overseeing aid operations, may take advantage of the crisis to move more forces into the area.

The insurgents have twice fired on helicopters carrying aid workers or supplies and have also attacked an aid convoy being escorted by government forces.

The Baluch insurgents accuse military forces of human rights abuses and Pakistan of exploiting Baluchistan's mineral wealth while local people live in poverty. Human rights groups say the military frequently abducts and kills ethnic Baluch.

The rebels frequently attack the Pakistani armed forces and have also been responsible for executing civilians like teachers and doctors from other ethnic groups.

(Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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Quake kills 45 in Pakistan, creates new island in sea

By Gul Yusufzai

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A major earthquake hit a remote part of western Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 45 people and prompting a new island to rise from the sea just off the country's southern coast.

Tremors were felt as far away as the Indian capital of New Delhi, hundreds of miles (kilometers) to the east, where buildings shook, as well as the sprawling port city of Karachi in Pakistan.

The United States Geological Survey said the 7.8 magnitude quake struck 145 miles southeast of Dalbandin in Pakistan's quake-prone province of Baluchistan, which borders Iran.

The earthquake was so powerful that it caused the seabed to rise and create a small, mountain-like island about 600 meters (yards) off Pakistan's Gwadar coastline in the Arabian Sea.

Television channels showed images of a stretch of rocky terrain rising above the sea level, with a crowd of bewildered people gathering on the shore to witness the rare phenomenon.

Officials said scores of mud houses were destroyed by aftershocks in the thinly populated mountainous area near the quake epicenter in Baluchistan, a huge barren province of deserts and rugged mountains.

Abdul Qadoos, deputy speaker of the Baluchistan assembly, told Reuters that at least 30 percent of houses in the impoverished Awaran district had caved in.

The local deputy commissioner in Awaran, Abdul Rasheed Gogazai, and the spokesman of Pakistan's Frontier Corps involved in the rescue effort said at least 45 people had been killed.

In the regional capital of Quetta, officials said some areas appeared to be badly damaged but it was hard to assess the impact quickly because the locations were so remote.

Chief secretary Babar Yaqoob said earlier that 25 people had been injured and that the death toll was expected to increase as many people appeared to be trapped inside their collapsed homes.

Local television reported that helicopters carrying relief supplies had been dispatched to the affected area. The army said it had deployed 200 troops to help deal with the disaster.

(Writing by Maria Golovnina; Additional reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik in Islamabad and David Chance in New Delhi; editing by Mark Heinrich)

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