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Pakistan earthquake toll put at 73,000

Islamabad: The toll in Pakistan's earthquake jumped to over 73,000 dead and 69,000 injured even as Islamabad on Wednesday discounted reports that a U.S. chopper was shot at in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir while carrying relief material.

Pakistan's Relief Commissioner Maj. Gen. Farooq Ahmed Khan revised the death toll in the October 8 earthquake to 73,276 with another 69,260 injured. Asked about the quantum jump in the death toll, Maj. Gen. Khan said many bodies were recovered during the last two days as the operation to remove the rubble was stepped up.

He said 2,775 villages were affected by the quake and the Pakistan army has accessed 2,734 villages and 41 are still remaining. They have not yet been accessed by relief and rescue teams due to roads being destroyed by the quake, he said.

Attack on chopper denied

Meanwhile, Pakistan military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan insisted that no rocket was fired on U.S. Chinook helicopter ferrying relief supplies to quake victims in PoK. ``We carried out the investigation and it revealed that it was blasting on the roadside by engineers, under way exactly at that time when the helicopter was flying over the area,'' he said.

The blasting produced a dust cloud and the pilot of helicopters misunderstood it as rocket fire, he said.

U.S. pilots reported on Tuesday that a Chinook heavy duty helicopter was fired at between Hattian Ballah and Chakoti while returning to the PoK capital Muzaffarabad. Pakistan reportedly cordoned off the area after the complaint.

Maj. Gen. Sultan said relief activities are going on at a normal pace, adding helicopter flights had to be halted in intervals due to low visibility.

Maj. Gen. Khan said that one tent for one family is the immediate priority. A total of 31 tent villages have been set up in NWFP with 17,979 occupants and 27 in PoK with 18,023 people.

On Wednesday, quake relief helicopters were taking to the air, as aid groups met President Pervez Musharraf to discuss the dire plight of survivors.

The U.S. said in a release here that it remained committed to keeping the flow of supplies into the affected areas and will continue contributing to relief efforts.

Relief sorties continue

``We are going to continue flying and do relief missions in support of the Pakistani Government and military as we have done,'' Captain Rob Newell of the U.S. Disaster Assistance Center public affairs office in Islamabad said.

Pakistan and the U.S. military said an investigation was ongoing but both sides appeared to be sticking to their version of events. — PTI, AFP

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