There were no first hand accounts - it was was reported by the Dawn, but after further investigations by them, it was revealed to be merely a misunderstanding, which they have now accepted.
Investigations into allegations of sale of donated tents at the Race Course Park in Rawalpindi as reported in Dawn on October 17 (Donated tents being sold?), have revealed that excess supply to a donor being cleared at cost price was misunderstood by story sources as donations being sold at the relief camp. It has been found that a retired military officer ordered supply of 50 tents as his donation to the relief efforts but was delivered 100 tents. Instead of returning the excess supply of 50 tents, the donor asked his friends to sell the 50 extra tents to someone interested in contributing 50 tents to relief aid. These tents landed at the relief camp as a convenient delivery point and were confused with donated tents. In-depth inquires by Dawn have revealed that the entire misunderstanding resulted from the relief camp being chosen as a convenient delivery point. It has also transpired that the figure of 400 tents was also incorrect and the total number of tents to be cleared was 50. The publication of the news story was followed by extensive investigations by all major intelligence agencies. These investigations were launched within hours of publication of the report and the findings were reported to the highest levels as inquires progressed. It is learnt that investigations were also completed on Thursday.
Hence, as you can see mere rumors are not fact. All rumours do is to spread disinformation, to the delight of our foes, nothing more.
To back up what mad scientist was saying - note the part bolded in red.
65 helicopters fly 2000 hours to evacuate 11,000 from quake areas
During last two weeks since earthquake hit Azad Kashmir and NWFP, pilots of Army Aviation and others who joined to augment the relief and rescue effort has flown over 2000 hours in the rugged terrain to evacuate 11,000 injured to hospitals and carry out relief goods in forward areas. All 65 helicopters, mostly of Army Aviation, including 25 allied have flow 684 sorties to Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Rawlakot, Balakot and inaccessible areas of Azad Kashmir.
**On the day when earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Rawlakot, Mansehra, Balakot, Islamabad and surrounding areas at 8.52 a.m. in the morning, the first helicopter of the Army Aviation was airborne within 20 minutes. By mid day at 1 p.m. over 100 seriously injured persons in quake hit areas had been evacuated by the Army Aviation helicopters. **
In the first phase as many as 10 MI-17 helicopters undertook rescue operations and subsequently the Aviation effort was reinforced with more helicopters raising the total tale up to 31 helicopters. Later, 10 US, 4 German, 4 Afghan, 3 Japanese and 4 Ukrainian helicopters also joined the one of the world’s biggest rescue and relief efforts to make a total tally of 53. The lot of 65 helicopters which include Chinook, Black Hawk, CH-53, MH-53, PUMA, Bell 412, Seaking, UH-2H, UH-60, have flown for over 2000 hours to evacuate over 11000 seriously injured patients to the hospitals and carried tons of relief goods to the affected areas.
Pakistan Army - working flat out to help the people. :k:
6 battalions working round the clock to restore road links: DG ISPR
Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj. General Shaukat Sultan on Saturday said that at least 6 battalions of Pakistan army are busy round the clock to restore the roads network in quake-affected areas of Azad Kashmir and NWFP. Relief goods are transported through vehicles to the areas where roads have been opened and then are shifted to inaccessible areas by the army jawans on animals, the DG ISPR told a private television channel. He said the people staying over high mountains’ tops are being requested to come down to the areas accessible through road for the time being. To a question he said, there is sufficient stock of food commodities and medicines in the affected areas, however tents and blankets are still needed in large number. “Our target is to provide shelter to all and sundry in the affected areas in next two weeks before the advent of winter,” he said. While denying the impression that roads in the affected areas would be blocked by snowfalls in next few days he said, only the branch ways situated at the altitude of 7,000 feet and above are usually blocked during the snowfall. The main roads in Neelum, Jhelum and Kaghan valleys remain functional throughout the year, he said, adding that such predictions should be avoided which may result in creating unnecessary panic and alarm.
^--No matter how much effort is put in by Pak army or govt. there will be elements that are not satisfied for obvious reasons... Given the terrain and limited resources that are at our disposal I'd say that army has done a splendid job... I agree with the heading of this thread 100 percent. There will be people who will rant and rave and these are the same people sitting on their a$$ and has not donated a sigle penny... Go Pak army jawans, keep up the good work and god bless you.
This refers not to the jawans, it’s not their fault, they will do whatever they are told. It refers to the officers and Generals in particular.
No one is saying there is not good, hard work being done by the Army (amongst others). What is being said is the response is clearly inadequate and failing and more of a complete Army effort could be made. That much should be obvious
Below is yet **another **report on the inadequate reponse from the Army govt…of course some will just ignore all these factual accounts,pretend it isn’t happening :rolleyes:
How many more times do we have to hear facts from those affected before those which such blind bias will recognise the facts, stop making excuses and actually see that defending the indefensible will not help anyone?!
If you can help, do so and give credit where credit is due, no use blindly chest thumping
More to the point, however, brewing resentment in Pakistan over the government’s response to the crisis could force an easing of tensions.
Ordinary Pakistanis wondered why a military-dominated government that justified itself by its supposed competency could not handle a crisis in the most militarized part of the country. The Army, says Ayaz Amir, a respected columnist for the Pakistani daily Dawn, was “paralyzed” and "seemed overwhelmed by the catastrophe. This disaster has shown the country’s premier institution at its most vulnerable."
As Amir points out, some 100,000 troops are stationed in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Yet it took the military at least three days to begin organizing and implementing a large-scale rescue effort that continues to fall short. At the weekend, aid and rescue teams still had not reached an estimated 20 percent of quake victims, even as snow began to fall at higher altitudes. Haider’s small garrison in Chakothi helped local villagers, providing medical help, sharing food rations and even giving spare tents to the aged, women and children. But in larger and largely flattened towns like Muzaffarabad, Balakot and Bagh, private efforts accounted for much of the aid that did arrive. Sensing the public’s dark mood, President Pervez Musharraf accepted some blame, saying in a nationwide speech last week that the government and the military had been slow to react because of blocked roads, severed communications and the lack of helicopters
Spot on. :k: One should not be amused in this time of tragedy, but it is funny see the one rabidly anti-military person, backed up a Muslim-hating Hindu posting the same articles twice in this thread, which shows how all they have is a couple of opinions, which they have post over and over again thinking no one will notice. Others have posted a vast array of facts to disprove them. The look rather pathetic.
Over the past few days i have been thinking about it, why had the civilian institutions failed so badly and army had to do the majority of relief work.
Without playing the blame game i thin there are certain points that i want to make:
1- Army undoubtedly is the most disciplined or the only disciplined instituion in Pakistan and perhaps is the "least" corrupt institution.
2- This disciplined institution also comes at a price, a huge price. The amount of money that we spend on these 500,000 individuals is perhaps 30% of our budget, now compare it to the budget spent on Police/hospitals/nurses/doctors/civil defence workers. Its no wonder that they failed on the occasion.
3- Its the best oppurtunity available to military to score points to a public which had over the last decade got fed up with the army, and they are not going to let go this oppurtunity.
4- If the civilians had been made incharge of releif operations, they would do a much worse job than what the army is doing right now, especially the type of civilians in Musharraf's lap like, Faisal Saleh, Sheikh Rasheed etc.
Others have made “first hand accounts”, that have later turned out to be completely false. This was first reported by the Dawn newspaper, and now even they have come out and admitted their mistake. Read it for yourself.
The further truth being is that the government are getting manufacturers to work flat out to make tents. To try to fill the gap the Pakistani government has ordered tent makers onto a war footing, demanding 8,000 tents a day and banning their export and domestic sales.
Well it's clear that people who are criticising the government are doing this just for the sake of criticism and nothing else, look what kind of politicians are criticising miliatry efforts (same people who has done nothing but "walk outs" from parliament). Look what sort of people are criticising military officials on this board...............is there any surprise??? NO, it's the same people who have been questioning military's capability and criticising Musharraf.
It is the Army’s job to do the relief work, just as we saw in New Orleans and Tsunami. As you mentioned Pak spends all its money on the Army, what its the least we expect.
As for the civilians, thousands have sacrificied more than the Army soldiers who are doing this are part of their job. NGO’s, esp those from overseas are working day and night to help,for no pay. Even the militants, and political parties such as JI and its Al-Khidmat have helped thousands from its own pockets.
No one is saying Army is not doing anything, what is being said is its efforts are not good enough. For examnple, yesterday in Dawn, ISPR said 6 battalions were working on it day and night…SIX?!! That’s less than 5000 soldiers!!..out of 500,000!
At least try tell the whole truth. Those six battalions are working on specific tasks (day and night) i.e. to clear the roads in a certain area - without which NGO’s would not be able to get anyhwhere. While in case you did not know whole divisions are working to bring relief to the people, and the Air Force is working flat out to bring round the clock relief to the people affected.
Helicopters of the Pakistani Army were airborne and heading for the disaster area, within 30 minutes of the earthquake. They were the first to reach the area, and started to bring out the wounded within 4 hours - despite having lost hundreds of soldiers themselves in the disaster. Amazing speed and dedication. :k:
At 9.20am on October 8, Army Aviation’s MI 17 helicopters had taken off from Qasim Base in Rawalpindi and the first one had returned by 1pm bringing back 140 patients from the earthquake-hit areas, said the chief military spokesman Saturday. In a wide ranging interview, Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan, Director General of the Inter Services Public Relations, recounted the initial moments after the massive earthquake and how decisions were made at the top level to deal with the unfolding disaster. Before the terrible moment, before the mayhem and before the rush to save lives, it was a typical Saturday morning, a holiday in the armed forces. At 8.51am Gen Shaukat was having his breakfast when his home shook violently and the lights went off. As soon as they came back, he switched on Geo TV and found out about the earthquake. He immediately rang up Chief of Staff (COS) 10 Corps Brig Tahir Ashraf to get the latest and at 9.10am placed a call to the Chief of General Staff (CGS). The CGS told him that he had already got a call from Bagh and had heard that there had been tremendous damage, and many villages may have been wiped out. From this point, events moved at a fast pace. At 9.20am, the first MI-17 army helicopters were airborne for Bagh and Muzaffarabad, even as fresh information was coming in from the forward areas. The real extent of the damage was slowly becoming clear. Just before 9.30am, Gen Shaukat got a call from a journalist who told him that he was standing in front of the Margalla Towers, which had collapsed. He told the general that army was needed there urgently because there was total chaos at the site.
On hearing this, Gen Shaukat rang the Director General Military Operations (DGMO), who told him that the Rawalpindi-based 111 Brigade had already been issued warning orders for disaster relief, and was on the move. It was around 1pm when he got a report that there was a dust cloud over Muzaffarabad, and the city had, for all practical purposes, collapsed. “That’s when I told the media for the first time that the casualties could be in the thousands,” Gen Shaukat recalled. In the meantime, the CGS had already taken off to see the damage for himself. He returned at 4pm and headed straight to brief the President. The Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister also attended this briefing to get an update on the situation. At 7.30pm, a conference took place at the Military Operation (MO) Directorate at the GHQ, which was chaired by the Vice Chief of Army Staff. This was attended among others by the Director Generals of MO, Military Intelligence (MI), Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), Engineers, Logistics, ISPR as well as the Surgeon General. After the first ten minutes, Gen Shaukat says he realized he had to go on television and explain the extent of the damage. On the live show, he said what people had seen of the Margalla Towers collapse was only the tip of the iceberg. The damage to life and property was colossal and certain villages had been completely wiped out. Muzaffarabad was 60-70 per cent destroyed. By this time, the army engineers had been given the task to open the blocked roads and work was underway. It was decided that relief goods like tents, rations and medicines would be carried across on helicopters. Next morning, according to Gen Shaukat, helicopters took these relief goods from army stores and delivered them to the affected areas. By this time, the magnitude of the disaster had become apparent. At sehri time on Sunday morning, Gen Shaukat rang the MO Directorate to get an update. The colonel on duty told him that according to the latest assessments, the casualty figure had climbed to 18,000. This figure was also confirmed by the Ministry of Interior. The colonel also informed him that confirmed army casualties stood at 252. At 7 am, that morning, Gen Shaukat for the first time gave this total casualty figure in an interview to CNN.
The same Sunday morning, President General Pervez Musharraf recorded his short statement for broadcast and then flew to Muzaffarabad. The DG ISPR followed with a media team and flew over Muzaffarabad, Balakot and the Neelum valley. From the air, they could see MI 17s picking up casualties. At 1pm in Muzaffarabad, the General Officer Commanding (GOC), while briefing the president, pointed out to the road in the distance to show that light traffic had already started moving. Later, Gen Shaukat said, he took the media team into the city to see what damage the earthquake had wreaked. “When I saw the scene I came to two conclusions,” he said. “First, the biggest casualties would be children because most of them were indoors in schools, and second women, because they would have been in their homes at the time the tremors hit.” He said he saw bodies of two children being pulled out from under a beam, and they were clinging to each other as if trying to save or protect each other. He said he could not hold back his tears at the sight. That’s when an employee of Radio Pakistan came up and told a foreign journalist, “where you are standing, underneath are my children.” His tears would not stop. While this was happening in Muzaffarabad, a decision was taken at a conference at the MO Directorate on 9th morning that all rescue and relief operations would be launched from Chaklala air base. By this time, the first rescue teams had also reached Pakistan. A Turkish team had flown in on Saturday evening and on Sunday morning, it was working at the destroyed site of National Bank in Muzaffarabad. Gen Shaukat said he had himself seen through the cavity the Turkish team had drilled and seen people alive under the rubble. They were in the process of being pulled out. The same morning, a field hospital had been set up in the Neelum stadium and patients were being treated on an urgent basis. The next morning, Saturday 10th October, the president and the prime minister had a meeting and decided to set up the Federal Relief Commission. The Vice Chief, CGS and the Air Chief also flew into the affected areas the same day. Meanwhile troops from Gujranwala, Kharian and Sialkot were already on the move, and their commanders had reached the devastated areas. The Division from Gujranwala was moving towards Mansehra and the one from Mangla was heading to Bagh. For these convoys to reach their destinations, the road had to be cleared. Gen Shaukat said this was already underway and much of the landslides had been cleared by the heavy machinery. The GOC from Murree had reached Muzaffarabad on the 8th and was supervising the operation. By the 10th evening, these convoys had reached Muzaffarabad and Bagh. Gen Shaukat said till these roads were cleared, troops could not have reached these cities. The army already deployed in the area had itself suffered heavy casualties, and reinforcements from nearby areas could not be brought in for the same reason: the roads were blocked. A large number of troops could not be airlifted into the cities because their airfields could not take C-130s. Helicopters were in very short supply and could only fit in a limited number of people. The smaller fixed wing Y12 aircraft, which could fit in a limited number of people, started flying into Muzaffarabad the day after the quake. Ever since the troops reached the cities, they have been working round the clock, Gen Shaukat Sultan said.