RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – U.S. Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, flew over the destruction in Pakistani Kashmir on Sunday, pledging the United States would send more helicopters and keep up relief efforts for the “long term.”
Separately, al-Qaida’s deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims to send aid to quake victims, despite Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s cooperation with the United States in the fight against terrorism.
An aftershock Sunday – one of hundreds since the initial Oct. 8 temblor – killed five people in Afghanistan’s eastern Zabul province near the Pakistan border. No deaths were reported in Kashmir.
A 6.0-magnitude quake, one of the strongest so far, later struck Pakistan’s quake region, but there were no reports of deaths or injuries.
Abizaid said he “saw devastation everywhere” during an aerial tour of the region. He promised 11 more Chinook helicopters would soon arrive to bolster relief efforts that already include 17 American helicopters and the U.S. Army’s only Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.
“I think the most important thing we can do is, by our own example, show the rest of the world that there’s a lot more work that needs to be done,” he said at the Pakistani air base in Rawalpindi, outside Islamabad.
“It’s not something that can just be forgotten, it can’t be the five-second sound bite that we’re all so used to, it has to be a long term effort to help a lot of people,” he added.
Winter is coming to the mountains of northwestern Pakistan, and about 800,000 earthquake survivors are facing the savagery of the Himalayan winter with no shelter at all.
Al-Qaida echoed U.S. general’s call for more aid.
“You should send as much aid as you can to the victims, regardless of Musharraf’s relations with the Americans,” said Osama bin Laden’s deputy, Egyptian surgeon al-Zawahri, in a videotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera television.
Neither Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry nor Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed would comment on al-Qaida’s appeal.
The 7.6-magnitude Oct. 8 earthquake was believed to have killed at least 79,000 people, mostly in Pakistan’s portion of Kashmir and destroyed the homes of more than 3 million people.
India has provided tons of relief goods to its northern neighbor and traditional rival, but has moved ahead cautiously with proposals from Pakistan that Kashmiris be allowed to travel between the two nations’ zones in Kashmir. Both countries claim the zone in its entirety and have fought two of their three wars over it.
How to help
The following aid agencies are among those accepting contributions to help people affected by the earthquake in south Asia:
American Red Cross, International Response Fund, 800-HELP-NOW, www.redcross.org.
Baptist World Aid, 703-790-8980, www.bwanet.org/bwaid.
CARE Gift Center, 800-521-CARE, www.care.org.
Catholic Relief Services, 800-736-3467, www.catholic relief.org.
Habitat for Humanity International, 800-422-4828, www.habitat.org.
United Methodist Committee on Relief, 800-554-8583, www.umcor.org.
World Concern, 800-755-5022, www.worldconcern.org.
More organizations can be found online at: www.interaction.org.
Associated Press
Along a road destroyed by the Oct. 8 earthquake, Kashmiri survivors walk for supplies on their way to the devastated city of Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, on Sunday.
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