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Asian quake death toll at least 20,000
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-09 21:30
Mansehra was believed to be a hotbed of Islamic militant activity during the
time the Taliban religious militia ruled neighboring Afghanistan. Al-Qaida
operatives trained suicide squads at a camp there, Afghan and Pakistani
officials told The Associated Press in 2002.
At least 215 Pakistani soldiers died in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir, Sultan
said. On the India side of the border, at least 54 soldiers were killed when
their bunkers collapsed, said Col. H. Juneja, an Indian army spokesman.
The only serious damage reported in Islamabad was the collapse of a 10-story
apartment building, where at least 24 people were killed and dozens were
injured. Doctors said the dead included an Egyptian diplomat, and the Japanese
Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said two Japanese were killed.
On Sunday, Pakistani rescue teams pulled two survivors from the rubble. The
boy and woman, who were listed in stable condition, told doctors others were
trapped alive and calling for help beneath the debris.
"These people heard voices and cries during the whole night," said Adil
Inayat, a doctor at PIMS hospital in Islamabad.
The death toll in India rose Sunday to 465 after rescue
workers and soldiers pulled out 90 more bodies in the frontier Tangdar region,
65 miles north of Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state.
Most of the deaths were in the border towns of Uri, Tangdar and Punch and
Srinagar, where the quake collapsed houses and buildings.
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