Official death toll in Pakistan quake jumps by 16,000

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's official earthquake death toll jumped by 16,000, and officials warned Wednesday that it is likely to rise further as relief supplies fail to reach thousands of victims stranded in remote parts of the Himalayas.

The announcement, which puts the official toll at 73,000, brings the central government figures closer to the number reported by local officials, who say the Oct. 8 quake killed at least 79,000 people in Pakistan.

"Just imagine how many villages and towns became a heap of rubble and how many people got buried," said Maj. Gen. Farooq Ahmed Khan told reporters.

Khan said 73,276 people have been confirmed dead in Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, up from the official count of 57,597. In India's portion of Kashmir, an additional 1,350 people died.

More than 69,000 people had severe injuries, with the total number of injured much higher, the general said.

Khan attributed the spike in deaths to bodies being recovered from the debris, and warned "there is likelihood of further increase" in the death toll. The government has been cautious about the official death count, while regional officials from Pakistani Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province issued their higher tolls more than a week ago.

Top U.N. relief coordinator Jan Egeland told PBS "there are many thousands, potentially tens of thousands, up there in the mountains that are wounded we haven't gotten to." He said a "second wave of death" could come from "people who could freeze to death, starve to death, or just be sick because of infected water."

U.N. officials say money for distribution of relief supplies was running dangerously low. Donors have pledged $131 million of the $550 million sought by the United Nations for emergency quake aid.

Egeland said foreign aid for the quake relief has so far been far less than what it was following last year's Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which killed 178,000 people and left an additional 50,000 missing.

After the tsunami, "we had about 1,000 helicopters active from the countries concerned, and from the whole international community. We have about one-tenth of this in this emergency, and we need helicopters just as badly," Egeland told PBS.

The U.N.'s World Food Program has only enough money -- $10 million -- to rent a third of the helicopters it needs for a round-the-clock operation into the winter, said spokesman Simon Pluess.

Khan said 31 tent settlements for quake victims have been established in northwest Pakistan and 27 have been set up in Kashmir. About 500,000 tents are needed to shelter the homeless; 300,000 have been distributed.

"We're doing too little combined as an international community because it's too vast," Egeland said. "We have 140,000 tents now in the area. Normally, that is more than enough for even large-scale emergencies. This is probably only one-fourth of what is needed."

Some 24 U.S. military helicopters are helping with relief efforts.

U.S. military relief flights resumed Wednesday in northern Pakistan but stayed a "safe distance" from where one American chopper reportedly came under attack Tuesday as it flew supplies to victims in Kashmir, military spokesman Cmdr. Nick Balice said.

The U.S. military initially said assailants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. CH-47 Chinook helicopter Tuesday as it flew over Chakothi, near the Line of Control that separates the Pakistani and Indian portions of Kashmir. The helicopter was not hit and returned safely to an air base near the capital.

In Washington, Brig. Gen. Carter F. Ham, who helps direct relief operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Pakistani officials would accompany future U.S. relief flights.

He said there was no damage to the helicopter and no injuries reported, "but we are very concerned." Ham said investigators had not reached conclusions and he could not verify there was an attack on the U.S. helicopter.

John A. Gastright Jr., a senior official in the State Department's South Asia bureau, said a road-clearing crew was working nearby and could have caused the explosion that was heard.

Kashmir has been a focus for Islamic militants seeking to gain independence from India, or a merger with Pakistan. Pakistan denies that militants use its territory as a base.

Militants have been helping quake victims in both parts of Kashmir.

A spokesman for one militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed -- which has alleged links to al-Qaida and claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing in Indian-held Kashmir on Wednesday -- said it would not contemplate attacking any foreigners who are helping quake survivors.

"All those foreigners, including Americans, who are helping our people in the quake-hit areas are our honorable guests," spokesman Sahrai Baba told The Associated Press. "We cannot even think of doing anything against them."