Pakistan winds up first tent camp in quake-zone

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Oct 3 (Reuters) Authorities in Pakistani Kashmir today began winding up one of the first informal tent camps established for survivors of last year's deadly earthquake.

The closure of the camp set up in Jalalabad Park in Muzaffarabad, the devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir, came days ahead of the first anniversary of the earthquake.

The camp was opened on October 9 a day after the quake struck northern Pakistan, killing more than 73,000 people and leaving more than three million destitute.

''Yes, today we have started shifting people to another place because the government wants to revive the park,'' Maqbool Shah, the manager of the camp, told Reuters.

Initially, 2,000 families were living in Jalalabad camp but most of them have either returned to their villages or have shifted to the new camp set up along the Jhelum River. There were 160 families were living in the camp, Shah said.

Authorities have been trying to persuade the people in Jalalabad Park to move to a properly administered camp on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad but they refused.

''We have to live in tents until we are able to rebuild our house. So it does not make any difference whether we live here or there,'' Qazi Abdul Razzaq, father of 10 children, said as he loaded his luggage in a car.

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