Rescuers in last minute bid to find survivors

As the clocked ticked by for their planned return this weekend, ex-Greenhead High School pupil Stefan Hopkins 40, was making a final sweep of the area, before stepping down after five gruelling days of work.

Yesterday, as the Keighley News spoke to his colleagues at the base of the rescue group Saraid, two Keighley women told of their anguish at the deaths of relatives in the disaster.

Rabia Kamran lost eight family members, including her grandparents, when the earthquake hit Muzaffarabad.

She is also fearful for the safety of eight other groups of her extended family living in the worst-hit areas.

Javed Farhad lost her cousin and his wife, and her badly-injured mother lies in a critical condition in Islamabad.

The women were yesterday still desperately trying to contact other relatives.

Their efforts came as several Keighley organisations launched fundraising drives to help the many thousands of victims.

More than £23,000 was raised by townspeople, and a further £40,000 by Keighley and Bradford businesses, in the first two days following Saturday's earthquake on the Pakistan-India border.

The official death toll yesterday rose to 24,000, with around two million people now homeless across the Kashmir region.

Most of Keighley's Asian population comes from Mirpur, which lies a few miles outside the main earthquake zone and suffered minor damage.

Some Keighley people have relatives living in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, near the earthquake's epicentre, as well as Islamabad, where buildings were destroyed.

Members of the 12-strong Saraid team -- set up by ex-RAF mountain rescue expert Stefan -- have worked 22-hour days searching a demolished market building near Muzaffarabad.

They pulled an elderly man alive from the rubble on Wednesday, but yesterday could not save a second victim. Stefan's team spent 13 hours on Wednesday shoring up a building site so it was safe enough to go in and retrieve him.

But severe aftershocks forced them to evacuate the building, and after a further collapse they discovered the man was dead.

Stefan's colleague Geoff Parkinson, speaking from the Saraid base camp in the town of Kywajamohallah, said: "There was no way we could compete with the aftershock. If we had gone into the building we would have almost certainly killed our team members. It's desperately frustrating when this happens, but it's a new day and we're out again and still hoping.

"Realistically we are looking at heading home on Saturday."

Rabia Kamran, of Greenhead Road, Beechcliffe, came to Keighley last year to marry, and many of her relatives still live in and around Muzaffarabad.

Eight of Rabia's close relatives have been confirmed dead, including her grandfather and grandmother, and several dozen cousins, uncles and aunts are missing. Rabia's uncle is a high-ranking policeman in Muzaffarabad now coordinating relief efforts after losing all 25 of his officers when his station was destroyed.

Rabia's brother-in-law, Rahim Bux, who lives in Keighley, said "Rabia's uncle was the only one who survived.

"He has been giving reports. There are dead bodies lying around and no food for people who survived. The roads are dangerous."

Rabia's only blood relative in Keighley, Mohammed Iqbal, has this week flown to Pakistan to find other family members. Rahim said: "Rabia still has about six or eight of her family groups they are still looking for, but there's not much hope."

A tearful Javed Farhad, of Maple Grove, Shann Park, this week clutched her daughter Terim Khan as she told how her brother was killed.

She had been told her brother was driving into Islamabad to pick up his daughter when the building fell on him.

Mrs Farhad, who moved to Keighley four years ago to marry, said her mother had not yet been treated in hospital after suffering severe injuries. She said: "There is no medicine, no clothes and no food. My mother has broken two bones on her side, and her back."

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