9 Mar 2023; MEMO: Pakistan, on Thursday, dispatched another shipment of over 1,200 tons of relief goods for people affected by twin earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria, an official said, Anadolu News Agency reports.
The consignment, which has been shipped off by a civil ship from the southern port city of Karachi, includes 8,200 winterised tents for Turkiye's quake victims, said a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the country's official disaster management authority.
"(The) NDMA flagged off 65 Containers with 1,221 tons of load through Civil Ship for quake-hit Turkiye and Syria on behalf of People of Pakistan," the spokesman said in a statement.
READ: Arab world shows unprecedented solidarity with quake-hit Turkiye
"Out of the 65 containers, 41 are carrying 8,200 winterised tents for Turkiye and 24 containers carrying 15,000 ration bags," he added.
The ship will drop off the aid containers to Turkiye on 23 March and Syria by the end of the month.
Pakistan, he said, is spearheading "massive" relief operations for the earthquake victims of the two brotherly countries by utilising all available modes of transportation, including air, sea and road.
Pakistan will also launch a "special chartered cargo flights operation" soon to transport relief goods to Turkiye for the earthquake victims, he said, adding that "assistance is also being sent using belly space of PIA on regular flights to Turkiye."
Apart from the fresh shipment of relief supplies, Pakistan has already sent nearly 9,000 winterised tents and over 60,000 blankets to Turkiye through state-run Pakistan International Airlines and road routes.
On 28 February, a Pakistan Navy ship carrying 1,000 tons of relief goods for the earthquake victims departed for Turkiye.
Moreover, Pakistani charities, including Al-Khidmat Foundation, Edhi Foundation, Baitussalam Welfare Trust, Sailani Welfare Trust, and Pakistan Red Crescent have also been engaged in relief and rescue efforts in the earthquake-hit regions of Turkiye and Syria.
More than 45,000 people died in Turkiye in the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes on 6 February. The earthquakes, which were centred in the province of Kahramanmaras, affected more than 13 million people across 11 provinces, including Hatay, Adana, Gaziantep, Diyarbakir, Adiyaman, Malatya, Kilis, Osmaniye, Elazig and Sanliurfa.
