Sleepless night for Uri residents as tremor rocks Kashmir

Srinagar, Mar 21: With October 8 killer quake still haunting the people, the residents of Uri spen a sleepless night after a moderate tremblor rocked the Kashmir valley late last night (Mar 20, 2006).

A weather office spokesman said the 5 5 magnitude earthquake rocked the Kashmir valley at 2311 hours.

He said the epicentre of the tremblor was somewhere near Muzaffarabad in the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). But certainly far away from the epicentre of October 8 quake which claimed lives of more than one lakh people and damaged property worth billions of rupees on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC). Two border districts of Baramulla and Kupwara were the worst affected areas this side.

The earthquake cannot be termed as aftershock of October 8, killer quake, as it occured after about three months, he said.

There was panic and confusion as everyone was rushing out of the temporary makeshift tin sheds after the tremors were felt, two residents Syed Arif and Muzaffar Hussain told UNI over phone.

They said as everything started moving and tin sheets started making noise people came out in panic.

People started crying asking others to come out of their sheds after the tremors, they added.

My wife and i were about to go to bed as others, including two children and parents were sleeping when the earthquake occured, they said.

The official spokesman said in Srinagar that there was no report of any loss of life or damage to property due to the earthquake.

UNI