Taliban orders Mujahideen to help with quake rescue efforts

More than 2,000 people have been injured.

The landslides were also hampering rescue attempts in a few areas, and roads were being cleared to ease access.

The quake was centered deep beneath the mountains in a region of Afghanistan bordering Pakistan. Thousands of people spent the night in the open in near-freezing temperatures due to fear of aftershocks.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, in a televised address, urged those living in affected areas to help the rescue effort. In Afghanistan, Wais Ahmad Barmak, the Afghan minister for disaster management, said 266 people were injured. The number of casualties on both side of the border was expected to rise.

He said food and other essential aid were ready to go but “getting there is not easy”.

But the Taliban released a statement Tuesday calling on its members to help the relief effort and telling aid agencies not to “hold back” in supplying food, shelter and medical supplies to victims.

Most deaths in Pakistan were reported from the mountainous region of Malakand in the northern region near the Afghan border, Rasheed said. At least another 30 died in the north-western tribal areas.

A relief operation is underway with the United States and Iran being among several foreign countries offering to provide much needed humanitarian assistance. Google also launched its “person finder” service. Los Angeles Times reported that experts hoped that since Monday’s quake struck at a relatively significant depth, damage at the surface would not be as severe compared with the previous devastating earthquakes.

The initial magnitude 7.5 quake on Monday afternoon was followed by seven aftershocks, measuring as high as magnitude 4.8, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Tremors of the first natural disaster were also felt in neighboring countries like India, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

The South Asia region has a history of catastrophic earthquakes because the tectonic plate that carries the Indian subcontinent is pushing northward into the main Asian plate.

Army Chief General Raheel Sharif apprised the meeting about the relief measures taken by Pakistan Army in the earthquake-hit areas. On record, 9,000 people were killed, and roughly 900,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.