Rains disrupt return of Pakistan quake survivors

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Apr 9 (Reuters) Heavy rains hit Pakistan's earthquake-devastated northern region, triggering landslides and disrupting return of survivors to their mountain villages, officials said today.

The showers came as some 300,000 people prepared to return to their villages after spending the winter in tents encampments.

More than 73,000 people died and about 3 million became homeless in the 7.6 magnitude quake that hit Pakistan occupied Kashmir and adjoining North West Frontier Province on October 8.

Tahir Qayyum, a senior police official in the region, said the roads running from Muzaffarabad, the devastated capital of Pakistan occupied Kashmir, to two main valleys in the region -- Neelum and Jhelum -- had been blocked by landslides.

''The landslides have reactivated in some areas and have blocked all kinds of movement on the roads passing through these areas,'' he told Reuters.

An official of the camps management agency, CMO, said return of survivors from several camps in Muzaffarabad to their villages had been halted because of bad weather.

Authorities are alarmed at the potential for diseases in several spontaneous camps that have sprung up in the quake zone and want them to be closed as early as possible.

But many survivors living in these camps are reluctant to leave saying that rains would aggravate their plight in the remote mountainous areas.

''The rains will cut off our villages from Muzaffarabad and we will literally be lying helpless on the mountains,'' said Fazal Hussain, living in a small unorganised camp in the town.

REUTERS SY KP1704