10 Held as Quake Survivors Protest

Pakistani police used bamboo canes and rifle butts Friday to break up a march by earthquake survivors protesting eviction from a makeshift camp.

Police said they made 10 arrests but denied that they were forcing people to leave. Witnesses, however, said police arrived early Friday at the Jalalabad Garden camp in a public park, telling quake victims to leave by 5 p.m.

“They said they would come with bulldozers, so we protested,” said Salim Shah, who was left lying by the road after being beaten. “We have no other place to go.”

Quake survivors have been setting up informal camps all over the city, most of them lacking adequate sanitation and deemed a public health risk.

The violence broke out as about 200 people marched through a street in central Muzaffarabad, one of the towns hit the hardest by the magnitude 7.6 temblor Oct. 8.

About 50 officers blocked the marchers’ way, then began dispersing the crowd. Several men were dragged away.

Yasin Qureshi, the senior superintendent of the Muzaffarabad police, denied that there were orders to clear the camp.

“We have not been directed to get these people out of here,” Qureshi said.

The quake, centered in the politically divided Kashmir region, killed about 86,000 people in Pakistani territory and 1,350 in India, destroying bridges, roads and the homes of more than 3 million people, along with hospitals, government offices and more than 10,000 schools.

The United Nations says it needs $550 million in emergency aid for earthquake victims, but donors have pledged only $131 million.