Pakistan sends relief aid for people affected by landslide in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD, May 6 (KUNA) -- In a gesture of solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, Pakistan has sent emergency relief assistance for those affected by the landslide in the northeastern Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan last week, said a Foreign Office press release.
On the instructions of Prime Minister of Pakistan Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, the first flight carrying relief supplies has reached Badakhshan on Tuesday.
The consignment contains essential emergency relief items, including tents, blankets, and water purification tablets.
Earlier, in his message of sympathy and condolences to President Hamid Karzai, the Prime Minister said that the people of Pakistan stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their Afghan brethren as they brave this tragic natural disaster.
The Afghan officials have confirmed the death of over 2100 people in a landslide that buried an entire village in Badakhshan province displacing hundreds of people. A spokesman for the Badakhshan provincial governor, Naweed Forotan, in a statement said, "More then 2,100 people from 300 families are all dead." The United Nations mission in Afghanistan in a statement said that the focus was on more than 4,000 people displaced, either directly as a result of landslide or as a precautionary measure from villages assessed to be at risk. The Natural Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Abdullah Dehqan said that rescue teams were striving to provide aid to 700 families living under the open sky. (end) sbk.ajs