Pakistan

[Iceman]

Saw on news today even India offered to put aside thier differences and help in any way possible with Pakistan's disaster...Dat made me smile ...Proof of good still at work in the world.

India's government offered condolences and assistance to Pakistan, a longtime rival with which it has been pursuing peace efforts after fighting three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.

[Damo1977]

Originally Posted by Iceman

Saw on news today even India offered to put aside thier differences and help in any way possible with Pakistan's disaster...Dat made me smile ...Proof of good still at work in the world.

That comment incites hatred, that comment adds fuel to the fire that is burning. That comment adds to the toll of innocents. I hope you ain't truthful.

[Kapitan]

it could be a front for something more meaningful good or bad :hmm:

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by Damo1977

That comment incites hatred, that comment adds fuel to the fire that is burning. That comment adds to the toll of innocents. I hope you ain't truthful.

...the statement is a plain statement of good news....the news of India laying down it's differences with Pakistan to lend a hand...not the Earthquake in case somehow you got confused there ...I'll go sloooooooooower next time....

[Konovalov]

I'm just surprised that a natural disaster of this magnitude with tens of thousands estimated as killed, many of those being school children, has attracted so little comment or attention from people on this forum considering that events such as Hurricane Katrina resulted in very long threads with an outpour of sympathy and support. May be it is just a lull on the forum?

My thoughts and prayers are with the injured and the families of the victims of this natural disaster. Hopefully the world can come together and act quickly to help alleviate the suffering in the region of Azad Kashmir and Indian controlled Kashmir. Hopefully some lessons have been learned from all of the other natural disasters the world has experience of very recent times.

This is personal for me as my wifes family originate from that region and we have many relatives and family members there. I know of one person here in High Wycombe who has lost 30 members of his family due to the disaster. All I can do is pray and donate what I can.

[Iceman]

Bump for Pakistan and all those in desperate need there.

[retired1212]

When the global media descended on Pakistan in the wake of the killer quake on 8 October, what the world saw was a relief effort that was perhaps memorable only for its chaos.

What went unnoticed was the tireless effort made by a handful of nameless and faceless people that eventually set the ground rules for what is shaping up into one of the largest relief and rescue operations since the Asian tsunami.

These men are the helicopter pilots of Pakistan's armed forces - perhaps the only people who have delivered more than was expected of them.

While those in cities and towns - helped mostly by road transport - have perhaps not even noticed their presence beyond the deafening hum of the rotors on their flying machines, villagers call them angels.

"If it hadn't been for these helicopters, about 600 people in my village who survived would surely have died," says Abdul Ghafoor, a resident of Chikothi.

Chikothi is a border town 62 kilometres northeast of Muzaffarabad. The road is so badly damaged that its restoration would perhaps take several months.

Locals say the choppers were there on the second day after the quake.

One of the Pakistan army's most senior helicopter pilots says he saw a "sea change" in the pilots under his command after their first trip to Muzaffarabad.

"Aviators are pampered brats because of the nature of their job," says this officer.

"You try and stretch them beyond regular hours and they throw the rule book at you."

Yet each one of the 20-odd chopper pilots employed by the Pakistan army has been doing 12 to 16 hour days since the quake struck.

For the first two days, they were even flying during the night - a practice strictly forbidden under normal circumstances.

Pilots recall those critical 48 hours as a period of "blind flights."

But while that pressure eased with the commissioning of more choppers, the pressure to evacuate the injured has only mounted with time.

Pakistan army spokesman Shaukat Sultan says the army's fleet of 10 Russian-built MI-17s - along with a few smaller ones - has rescued 6,000 people so far.

The commanders of these pilots say they will not stop their aid efforts, and when ordered to do so they fight and resist to the point of insubordination.

"There were hundreds of people standing amid the rubble, waving to me, motioning me to come down," says one MI-17 pilot describing his first view of Muzaffarabad - only about four hours after the quake.

"But at that stage, we had only been sent out to assess the situation, not to intervene.

"Now we can and I am not stopping till I drop."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4346778.stm

[Iceman]

He says one of the trickiest problems he has faced in relief and rescue work so far is airdropping supplies.

The hastily put together relief packages in the initial days could weigh in excess of 40 kilos.

"Can you believe that old men, women and children would run directly under the choppers, trying to catch the drops," he says.

"From a height of 20 to 25 metres, they would have been crushed under their weight."

Often, the pilots would have to return without dropping supplies - a complaint that was heard from many villagers once the land routes opened.

"What could we do? We were carrying only the minimum possible fuel so we could carry more supplies.

"And if the people in one village held us up for more than a few minutes, we would just fly on to the next."

From that link Oombongo posted...I was wondering if airdrops were being done this answered my question.