Islamist
charities, some with suspected ties to militants, stepped in on Monday
to provide aid for Pakistanis hit by the worst flooding in memory,
piling pressure on a government criticized for its response to the
disaster that has so far killed more than 1,000 people.
The floods that
ravaged the northwest and displaced more than a million people are
testing an administration heavily dependent on foreign aid and which
has a poor record in crisis management — whether fighting Taliban
insurgents or easing chronic power cuts.
Islamist charities
believed to have ties with militants may gain support if their relief
efforts pay off, as they did after a 2005 earthquake in Kashmir killed
75,000 people.
“We have lost
everything. We only managed to save our lives. Nobody has come to us,”
said Mihrajuddin Khan, a school teacher in Swat Valley. “We are being
treated like orphans, animals.”
Rescuers are
struggling to distribute relief to tens of thousands of people trapped
in submerged areas where destroyed roads and bridges make access
difficult.
Many in the path
of the floods scrambled to save their livestock. One man swam across
heavy currents with his chicken tied around his neck. In one town,
there were more than 100 bloated buffalo carcasses, raising the spectre
of disease.
Islamabad may look
to Western countries, who want it to do more to tackle Pakistan-based
militants who attack NATO forces in Afghanistan, for financial support
to ease the crisis.
The U.S. embassy
announced $10 million in immediate humanitarian aid, with more to be
earmarked as necessary. The European Union will donate 30 million euros.
Salman Shahid,
spokesman for the Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (Foundation for the
Welfare of Humanity), said the Islamist group had set up 13 relief and
six medical camps, and a dozen ambulances were providing emergency
treatment. Several other Islamist groups are also helping out with the
relief effort.
Falah-i-Insaniat
is believed to have ties to Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, which the U.N.
Security Council banned last December for its alleged links with
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group blamed for the 2008 attack on the
Indian city of Mumbai.
“We’re very much
there. We’re the only group that is providing cooked food to trapped
people and those laying on the roadside,” Shahid told Reuters from the
group’s headquarters in Lahore.
“Our volunteers
are evacuating people.” Some analysts expressed doubts that Islamist
groups and their militant wings could capitalize on the disaster
because army offensives have weakened them.
Others said the Islamists’ camps had set a dangerous precedent.
“It is very likely
that they will exploit the governance vacuum, in the wake of this
tragedy, to fuel their own recruitment,” said columnist Huma Yusuf.
A similar dynamic
happened after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, she said, when extremist
groups gained immense popularity from their relief efforts. Pakistan is
fighting insurgents from al Qaeda and homegrown Taliban in the
northwest.
Military in charge
Authorities are
expecting the death toll to rise, as more of the heavy monsoon rains
lashing the area for the past week are forecast. Pakistan’s National
Disaster Management Authority said more than 29,500 houses were damaged
and a key trade highway to China was blocked by flooding.
“Our main
challenge of getting a clearer picture is access,” said Nicki Bennett,
senior humanitarian officer at United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Officials said it
was too early to estimate the damage the floods had caused to the
economy, but the rains had so far spared the main agricultural
heartland in the Punjab.
“The entire
infrastructure we built in the last 50 years has been destroyed,” said
Adnan Khan, spokesman for the provincial Disaster Management Authority
in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The disaster management authority said tents and hygiene kits had been delivered. Helicopters and boats have been dispatched.
But analysts say the government really lacks the resources to take on a disaster of this scale, leaving the military in charge.
More than 30,000
Pakistani troops have rescued some 19,000 people from marooned areas so
far. Some army bases used to strike at militants in Nowshera, some 100
km (60 miles) northwest of the capital Islamabad, have been flooded.
The government’s
failure to help victims reinforced the long-held view that Pakistan’s
civilian authorities are ineffective, leaving the military to act at
troubled times.
The government of
President Asif Ali Zardari has limited control over the military. It
has also been relatively ineffective in tackling corruption and
reforming the economy.
“What we have seen
is their almost total paralysis and they have not been able to mobilize
the resources,” said Riffat Hussein, a defense expert at Quaid-e-Azam
University.
Highlighting
growing frustrations, farmer Ghulam Hussain said: “You can imagine how
much they’re concerned about us when the president leaves for London
(for a state visit), even though people are dying and hundreds of
thousands are homeless.”
