Quake relief fights tough terrain

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a Kashmiri separatist leader from Srinagar, has organized a local collection drive for money and blankets for quake survivors. He calls on Pakistan and India to restore phone lines so that divided families on both sides of the border can contact each other. "Calamities don't recognize borders," says Mr. Farooq. "These are man-made borders."

Abdul Majid Mallick, president of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation League in Mirpur on the Pakistani side of Kashmir, says that this is a golden opportunity to cooperate. There are areas in Pakistani Kashmir that are blocked and can be easily accessed from the Indian side of Kashmir, he said. "If both India and Pakistan jointly hold rescue operations, so much more can be done to save lives in Azaad Kashmir," he said, using the Pakistani name for the province. Azaad means "free" in Urdu.

Pakistan Monday accepted an Indian offer of aid for earthquake-hit areas on the Pakistani side of Kashmir on a "very urgent basis." India will send a shipment of tents, food, medicine, and other aid. However, Pakistan also ruled out joint rescue operations. Pakistani's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Tasnim Aslam, said that "there is no population" right on the frontier that divides the territory between the two neighbors, "so ... there is no possibility of joint operations."

At the front-line checkpost between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir, close to the Indian city of Uri, Indian and Pakistani Army commanders have held two meetings on how to coordinate relief efforts between the two countries.

This in itself is significant, given that the two countries have fought two all-out wars, a major conflagration, and a 16-year-long insurgency with each other over the state of Kashmir. Yet the meetings thus far have been largely symbolic.

"There is not that intensive a cooperation on the ground," admits Sitanshu Kar, an Indian Defense Ministry spokesman. "It's a little early yet. There has to be a formal request from Pakistan, which has not come so far."

• Anuj Chopra contributed from Bombay.

• Afghanistan Pledged to send 51 doctors, five nurses, 3 tons of medicine

• Britain Sent specialist rescue teams; $1.7 million pledged so far

• China Sent rescue teams, medical workers, seismologists; pledged $6.2 million

• India Sending tents, food, medicine

• Kuwait Donated $100 million

• Malaysia $1 million pledge; sent 46-member search and rescue team

• Russia Sending 30 rescue workers, four rescue dogs, supplies

• Saudi Arabia Sending supplies, medical teams

• South Africa Sent 18 doctors, 10 paramedics, 30 tons of aid

• Turkey Sent four military planes with doctors, rescue workers

• United Arab Emirates Sent police rescue team

• United States Pledged up to $50 million; dispatched eight military helicopters

Sources: AP, Reuters

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