Quake relief fights tough terrain

The situation was similar up in the town of Balakot, in the rugged Northwest Frontier Province, a mountainous region long thought to be a possible hiding place of top Taliban leaders and even Osama Bin Laden. Landslides have taken out a section of the road some four miles from Balakot, and the only way to reach the city itself is on a rickety suspension bridge . On Sunday night, villagers could be seen bringing the injured across this bridge on traditional cots made of rope.

All along the mountainous valley, with its picturesque pine slopes and terraced farms, stonebuilt houses had collapsed. Survivors have built shelters out of corn stalks. Many of the dead have already been buried in makeshift graves. The injured lay out in the open on string cots, awaiting evacuation and medical care. But such care is sparse. Few humanitarian aid groups have reached this region.

In a prosperous neighborhood in Muzaffarabad, Syed Manzoor Hussain's family holds a sign in English that reads, "We need help."

Their homes are destroyed, and four children in an extended family of about 150 members were killed when their neighborhood school collapsed Saturday morning.

"Early morning, all the children went to school," says Mr. Hussain. "And then, at 9 a.m., the earth moved." He pauses. "We just recovered the last child today."

Members of the Hussain family express anger that the government has not moved more quickly, even though the Pakistani Army has hundreds of thousands of troops along the border that divides Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.

"We have been here like this for three days," says Hussain, pointing to his family, living out in the garden of their home, cooking and sleeping in the open as night temperatures drop. Hussain's nephew, Ishtiya, is even more angry. "Nothing is coming fast enough," he says. "It is the young who need the help, because they were the ones who went to school."

Few of the survivors cry. Most have a stunned sense of resignation. And most continue to observe Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, which began on Oct. 4 this year. At sundown, they break their fast with the ritual of Iftar, sharing buckets of water and whatever food they can find, mostly husks of maize.

In Islamabad, President Musharraf appealed to the world for aid. His greatest need, the general said, was for helicopters. In Washington, President Bush promised to send eight choppers - a mix of large troop-carrying Chinooks and Blackhawks from neighboring Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai also pledged to send some helicopters, and donations began pouring in from many Muslim nations, especially the United Arab Emirates.

Some of the groups most active in the aid effort appear to be Islamic parties and Kashmiri separatist groups. Militant groups under the Pakistan-based umbrella group, the United Jihad Council, called for a cease-fire after the earthquake.

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