ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has sent two more planeloads of tents to Türkiye, the country’s disaster management authority confirmed on Wednesday, as Islamabad steps up its efforts to aid victims of last month’s massive earthquake that killed thousands.
On February 6, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck parts of Turkiye and Syria, razing hundreds of buildings and structures to the ground. Authorities put the combined death toll from the disaster in both countries above 50,000, of which Turkiye reported over 45,000.
Pakistan is among several countries that immediately sent search and rescue teams and relief goods to Turkiye. On Sunday, Islamabad announced a special flight operation through which it said 50,000 tents would be sent to the disaster-struck country.
On Wednesday, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in Pakistan announced it had dispatched two more planes to Türkiye containing winterized tents.
“As directed by PM, @ndmapk has dispatched 8th cargo with another 1,200 winterized fire resistant family tents (90 tons load) from Lahore,” the NDMA said in a Twitter post.
In a separate post earlier in the day, the NDMA announced it had sent another planeload that contained 1,400 tents for the disaster victims.
Pakistan has so far sent 9,800 type-II tents to Turkiye via the special flight operation, the NDMA said, adding that 2,595 tents had been separately dispatched via the country’s national carrier and a Pakistani Navy ship, taking the total number of fire-resistant tents sent to Turkiye at 12,395.
February’s earthquake and aftershocks left at least 156,000 buildings either completely collapsed or damaged to the point that they require to be demolished, Turkish authorities have said.
