Free Republic

Bin Laden doctor joins ‘jihadi’ relief work A Pakistani doctor who once treated Osama bin Laden is among hundreds of volunteers from an Islamic group who are participating in relief work in quake-hit areas of Pakistan and Kashmir. "We have sent 50 trucks carrying relief goods to Kashmir and those areas of north-western Pakistan where the quake killed thousands of people," said Yahya Mujahid, spokesman for Jamat-e-Dawad group, which describes itself as a charity. The group is headed by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, a senior cleric who founded the anti-India Lashkar-e-Tayyaba in 1989. Lashkar-e-Tayyaba was banned by Pakistani president Pervez...

ISLAMABAD - As more reports of cities and villages being totally reduced to rubble in NWFP and AJK pour in, the confirmed death toll currently put at 20,000 by the government is likely to go beyond 200,000. According to estimates the death toll in Hazara division alone may rise close to 100,000. This includes the death of 60,000 or more in Balakot, 1,000 in Battagram, and hundreds more in Mansehra, and Abbottabad districts. Dozens of villages have turned into mounds of earth; the number of their dead will take a long time coming. The situation in Azad Kashmir is...

MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 10: This capital of Azad Kashmir of 0.2 million is no more a city of the living. It is almost a graveyard now. Bodies can be seen everywhere, on roads, streets and under the debris of devastated buildings. There are no medicines and food available and people fight over limited stocks. People have to spend their nights under the open sky and some in their vehicles. There are no tents, no food and no drinking water. Thousands of people are still alive under the debris and fallen building structures. “I am alive. Pull me out for God’s...

BALAKOT - The towns of Balakot in Hazara and Bagh in Azad Kashmir were razed to ground completely and more than 100,000 people are feared dead in these two cities only. The stench of death hangs over the weaving rows of rubble that was once Balakot, a thriving tourist town, a must stopover for cheerful visitors enroute to Kaghan. Saturday's massive quake has turned the historic town of Syed Ahmed Shah's martyrdom into a massive graveyard sprawling on both sides of the river Kunhar while the survivors with broken limbs and hearts mourn their loved ones who perished in...