Kashmir quake: How news spread

Pakistan fears the death toll could be in the thousands

The scale of Saturday's powerful earthquake in Pakistan is only slowly filtering through to unaffected areas of the country where families are struggling to find information about relatives, the BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan in Karachi reports.

Pakistan is no stranger to earthquakes because of the Eurasian fault line that runs through it.

So at first it seemed that the focus on this earthquake must have been because Islamabad - the seat of power - had been jolted.

But then, one by one, the dozen-odd private TV channels in the country started going live - the first indication that this was something big.

"It has happened again, just a minute ago," a voice screamed at one of the channels that had hooked up with its reporter in the city of Peshawar in northern Pakistan.

This was almost an hour after the first tremors were felt.

Until about 1000 am (local time), details remained sketchy.

A building had collapsed in Islamabad but there was no word on the dead and injured.

"Several old buildings" in parts of Lahore in central Pakistan had been "badly damaged".

"Other northern areas" have also been "severely affected" - again no word on casualties.

Scramble for information

It wasn't until the first pictures were broadcast of the collapsed residential building in Islamabad that panic set in.

Increasingly anxious relatives in Karachi started calling up newspaper offices.

The earthquake was felt in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan

"I have been trying for an hour but the landlines are not being answered and the cell phones aren't connecting," a female caller pleaded with reporters at a major Karachi newspaper.

"Can you please tell me how serious the damage is in Peshawar," she asked.

Around this time, privately-owned Geo TV got hold of the information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

"Yes, a building has collapsed in Islamabad but otherwise, there is traffic on the roads, shops and businesses are open and life is going on as usual," he said.

By that time, however, it had become clear that parts of Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province were very badly hit.

'Eerie silence'

But oddly enough, no one was talking about the human toll.

It was almost as if no one wanted to talk of the death and destruction that the quake could have caused

A reporter working for the state-controlled PTV said he had seen "30 to 40" dead bodies himself in the Frontier town of Mardan.

But it was never repeated.

It was almost as if no one wanted to talk of the death and destruction that the quake could have caused.

Then a medical officer in one of the hospitals in the Frontier town of Mansehra said that there was simply no space in her hospital.

"We have moved most of the injured to the lawn outside," she told Aaj TV.

"This is partly because of lack of space and partly because we are still experiencing tremors."

Two towers of a housing complex collapsed in Islamabad

The conclusion drawn in Karachi was that the situation was far worse than what had been reported until then.

Particularly problematic was the Kashmir region, where communication is an issue even at the best of times.

"Widespread damage" was being reported from Muzaffarabad - the capital of Pakistan administered Kashmir - and Rawalakot which is one the most affluent towns in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The larger Pakistani cities draw a bulk of their domestic workforce such as cooks and drivers from Kashmir.

The fasting month of Ramadan is traditionally the time that most of this workforce prepare for their annual holiday to celebrate the festival of Eid with their families.

Suddenly, they were unsure of what the news meant for them.

Around noon, a military spokesman said for the first time that the human toll could be high in some of the northern areas and particularly Kashmir.

Many among the domestic workforce immediately took the day off and ran to the nearest telephone facility to try and contact their families.

"I am not rich enough to afford a flight and it takes me more than two days to get to Kashmir by road," said a driver.

"I just don't know what to do."